Growing Without Schooling 17

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING

17 We're putting this issue of GWS together more quickly than usual, partly to get back on schedule for the cale ndar year and partly because we have so much wonderful material that keeps coming in. Things are still busy here. We've been averaging over 60 new subscriptions per week since the end of June (as opposed to 10 per week for the three months before that). Many of these are due to the Mo ther Earth News interview, which still br~ngs us mail. We 're also getting many orders for samples from Nancy Wallace's good article in countr* Journal.

Tanks again to our office vo lunt eers, who help us do so much at once. Our new volunteers are Scott Layson, Laur ie Phillips, and Heather Kapplow (8 years old).

Some of you have seen the new version of the GWS flyer. One side is the same invoice and "What is Growing Without Schooling? " description as on the previous flyer; the other side is the front page of GWS #15 . I like using the front page of #15 because it shows what GWS looks like, it mentions the Mother Earth News interview and ot her good news, it mentions the co-operating sc hool district in Barnstable MA, and it gives some of the general feel of the magazine . An easy way to bring GWS to t he attention of many people.

There was a short interview with me in the Sept . Boston magazine. And Mel Allen of Yankee magazine is put ting together-a-ma}or story that will come out t h is winter.

Happ y to hear that GWS readers in two more states are getting together informally: in Pennsylvania, Joe and Lorraine Clark ( see Directory) held an unschooling picnic, and in Maryland, unschoolers have held several meetings and have started a small newsletter (contact Gail Himes or Manfred Smith . ) Attorney Richard M. Borod ( Edward & Angell, #1 Hospital Trust Plaza, Providence RI 02903) sent us a c o py of the R. I. Commissioner of Education's decision concerning the Irving Rot hw ell family of Smit h fie ld.

The Commissioner decided that the home-teaching of Mrs . Rothwel l , using Christian Liberty Academy curriculum, complies wit h state law. We plan to quote from the decision in the next issue of GWS. My editor says that my unsc hooling book won ' t be out until next June; t he title should be decided upon by December .

--- John Holt

Activities Ofc, 309-438-2151.

Oct. 30: Hope College, Holland MI. Contact John Cox, English Dept., 616-392-5111 or 392-2986 .

Oct. 31 : Aquinas College, Grand Rapids MI. Lunch & afternoon mtgs.

Contact Jim Garofalo, 616-459-8281 ext. 297.

Nov . 17: Cedar Rapids, IA . Contact Shannon Haggerson ( IA Director y), 319-462-2119.

Nov. 19: Marin Community School, Mill Valley CA. 7:30 pm meeting. Contact Faye Sellin, 415-383-1233.

Nov. 20: Des Moines IA CANCELLED Nov. 24-25: University of Redlands, Redlands CA 92373. Contact Jack Wilson, School of Music, 714793-2121.

Apr. 24, 1981: Music Educator's Nat 'l Conference, Arena, Minneapolis MN. 11 AM mtg, Mi nneapolis Convention Hall. Contact: Gene Morlan, 1902 Assoc . Dr, Reston VA 22091 .

receive the photocopy whether or not to get in tou ch with the others . ..

I ask that people send $2 with their original letter as a kind of "registration fee." Later if they want to get an update of the additional names in an area, I can send that for juct a self-addressed stamped envelope ( SASE ) ...

As we go t o press, the following engagements have not been confirmed.

Check with this o ffice or the con tacts listed.

Nov. 18 : UC Davis and/or Sacramento State U, CA. Stella Taylor, Rt 1 Box 42F, Winte rs CA 95694.

Nov . 19: Sonoma State College, Santa Rosa CA . Ar t Kane, 707-763-9866 or 795-8060.

Nov. 20: Santa Cruz CA. George Levenson, 408-426-2134.

Nov. 20: Stanford U, CA. Mr. Mitchell Hall, 90A Escondido Village, Stanford 94305.

Nov. 21: Redwood Ci t y CA . Mar lene Bumgarner, 408-779-5930.

Nov. 21-22: Sa n Francisco CA. Frank For tkamp, 415-433-4316.

Or, "Am Seeking: GARDENING," etc .

Only one skill per 3 x 5 card, otherwise rr-will be impossible to organize . Each card must be acompanied by $1 bill or check. We'll inform by card or telephone right away of contacts now in file, plus new ones as they come in . Also do periodic print outs - perhaps include in our Directory, or a separate publication if enough come in to warrant it. We ha ve a colony here now with enough manpower t o handle it.

LEARNING EXCHANGE NEWS

As we go to press, we ' ve received three offers t o run a Learning Exchange (see GWS #16. ) We won't be surprised if a few more offe r s come in . We tend to fee l, l et them all start up - the more the merrier. The y can all call themselves "GWS Learning Exchanges" if they want, or make up their own names; they can work out for themselves how to organize and whethe r to charge for the service .

Perhaps people will wan t to use the Exc h a nge c l osest to them, perhaps not. These Exchanges may decide to merge with each other, or split up into even smaller ones - anything can happen.

We next heard from Norm and Sherrie Lee of Homesteaders News, PO Box 193, Addison NY 14801: .. . We already have experience with this sort of thing with our "Homesteaders' Directory." We ask that each send a 3 x 5 card in this form: Will Share : GARDENING Name Address Phone

Zip Code

Third was Shelley Dameron in North Carolina: ... Announcing the start of the Knowledge Bank. Based on the Learning Exchange, it is a list of those who seek and those who know. Persons may send a l ist of things they know about or are skilled at (from Puppy Training to Astronomy) to: The Knowledge Bank, PO Box 1568, Boone NC 28607. Requests for th e addresses of those in the know mus t be accompanied by a SASE. No fees - thanks to our home computer , this should be fairly easy.

I 'm glad to offer this service to un schoolers (a nd anyone else') Good luck to all these people ; we hope they keep us informed as to how things go. And we 'll be happy to announce more Learning Exchanges.

ANNE SULLIVAN

First to respond was Nancy Plent, 2 Smith St, Farmingdale NJ 07727 :

From the l etters of Anne Sul l i van, prin te d in the back of Helen Keller's THE STORY OF MY LIFE:

COMING LECTURES

would love to do the " GWS Learning Exchange " you mention. We have started one here in New Jersey, but it would be grea t to reach al l of GWS readers. We have a good voluntee r group and the use of a computer if things get out of hand ... The idea fits in well with my thoughts l ately .

Want to start dOin~ this new world we're after ins tea of just talk' Instead of filing people as "Seekers" or " Sharers," I wo uld rather put together all the names and addresses of people inte r ested in a certain field - " Photogr aphy, " "Computers," etc . Each person should include a short description of their degree of interest or involvement;

Oct. 29: Illinois State Univ . , Normal IL . Aft . meeting, 8 PM lecture. Contact: Tony Chambers, Student

experience ." Then I can make a photo copy of all the cards on a particular topic, and it's up to the people who

... No, I don 't want any more kindergarten materials . I used my little stock of beads, cards, and straws at first be cause I didn't kn ow what e l se to do; but the need for them is past, for the present at any rate.

I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is an idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas, if the child is left to h imsel f , he will think more and better, i f less shOWi ly . Let him come and go freely, let him t ouc h real things and combine his impressions for h imself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that h e build a stone wall wit h his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of co l ored paper, or plant

for example, "beginner," or " 5 years

2 straw trees in bead flower-pots ...

Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the c h ild ca n develop independent ideas out of actual experiences ...

YOUNG WRITER'S SUCCESS On page one of GWS #15 we printed a letter from Pat Stone of Mot h er Earth News saying that they were very Interested in carrying some stories written by children for children, "of a practical how-to nature . " Now Nancy Wallace (NH) tells us: ... Wanted to let you know the exciting news. Mot h er Eart h News h as accepted an artlcle by Ishmael called, "How to Build a Raft," and they sent him a check for $80' Ishmael was flabbergasted. We immediately went to the bank where he opened a savings account ... The article should appear next summer ...

Congratulations, Ishmael; I hope many others will follow your good example, and with equally happy results.

REPORT FROM NEBRASKA A Nebraska reader writes : . .. GWS has been an immense help to me since receiving Issues 1-12 last January. I wrote to you last fall and again in January, looking for moral support in my attempts at home education for our children . Your personal replies to my letters and the information in four of your books that I ordered have been invaluable to me.

I was disenchanted with Calvert's courses and was just beginning what I thought was a good experience with [a Christian correspondence school) when I wrote to you. One of my statements to you then was that I was delighted that these new lessons were "really teaching our children how to think." You surely must have raised your eyes heavenward at that comment as I do now in looking back on it . After about three months with these courses I threw in the towel and opted for letting the kids help their Papa and me dig out the basement rather than battle for 6-8 hours a day on lessons that they hated and I found an increasing aversion to. We haven ' t sat down to a formalized lesson since then and are all a much happier family for it.

There is never a dull moment in our children's days and I never cease to be amazed at how "educational" their games usually are. My occasional feelings of guilt are always salved by reading (or rereading) past articles in GWS, and the feeling that you and other non-schoolers like myself would probably feel I am on the right track.

Our nine year old son had always posed problems for me in my attempts to educate him according to the books. On the other hand, his abilities to operate and work on our farm machinery were years beyond what most children his age could do . My husband always gave him whatever help he needed but never lectured him on being careful and seldom gave him more than minimal instructions. This learning on his own worked far better than my teaching ever did. Creating a similar atmosphere here at home for him has

proven to be successful and I'm now looking forward to many pleasant years of learning with the children, not just from 9-5 our-24 hours a day. . . . 1 have not asked that our names be added to the GWS directory because so far we have had very little trouble with the authorities and have come to the conclusion that not advertising our feelings is the best way to avoid trouble, at least for the present . I think in many instances the authorities would prefer to ignore non-schoolers but are almost forced to action because of the "flag waving" done by some non-schooling parents . We had little trouble here until others using these Christian courses began harping about the immorality, etc . , in the local public schools, and thumbed their noses at the school superintendent. Our desire is not to be lumped together with anyone but simply be left alone to do what we feel is right for our family.

On the other hand, it has been wonderful to read in GWS the experiences of others in situations like ours and to be able to gain from their mistakes and triumphs as well as by my own . What I'm trying to say is that I feel like a traitor for not being listed in the Directory, but feel it ' s best for us presently to keep a low profile. If you ever feel any of my comments might help others I wouldn ' t object to having them repeated in GWS or elsewhere but I ' d pre~er simply being known as "a reader . ...

In my reply, I wrote: . .. 1 think you are 100% right about not inflaming the authorities and instead keeping a low profile. ... Please don't even for a second think of yourself as any kind of traitor for not listing yourself in the Directory. You are already helping the unschooling movement just by the fact of teaching your own children, and even more by writing us such good letters about what you are doing.

Don't think about making yourselves publicly visible until you feel absolutely confident about the local school situation ...

GOOD NEWS FROM MISS. A Missippi reader writes: . . . Perhaps other people have already told you about Mississippi, but in case they haven't, I will.

For many years there wasn't a compulsory education law. We came here at that time (1974) with our children . . . . A couple of years ago a compulsory education law was passed. . .. The secretary of our local superintendent of education told me a few weeks ago that the compulsory education law isn ' t enforced anywhere in the state . I have no idea what it would be like to live in other parts of the state, but we like it here.

We've never had any confrontations with school officials. We just live our lives in peace going where we please, when we please, as our interests and finances allow.

From time to time certain people will question us about why our children aren't in school. We explain, and always, so far, that has been the end of the matter.

This is a poor area. It is actually in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. It is hilly and wooded and pleasant in a way of its own.

We were afraid there would be a lot of racial problems, but so far we haven't observed anything major. As a matter of fact I've never witnessed anything minor either .

What I've been trying to tell you in this letter (which has become much longer than I intended) is that this has been a good place for us, and it might be just the place some other unschoolers have been looking for . . .

SCHOOL IN FLA. A reader writes : ... A group of parents here in Highlands County are operating under Florida Law 623, "Private School Corporation Law," each teaching their own children. About eight Or ten counties in Florida that we know of have private schools formed by parents to teach their own children. Our school was formed three years ago by one family and called the American Heritage Private School of Highlands County . This couple serves as principal and administrator and each parent is certified as an instructor by the school. We started teaching our kids last year, and while it requires a lot of effort and self discipline, we feel that the kids are better off for it ...

CREDENTIAL PROGRAM My good friend Eleanor Siegl, who runs the alternative "Little School" in Seattle, reminded me the other day that her school offers a teaching credential program. Because the program is affiliated with Pacific Oaks College in California, student teachers can work toward a Calif. and/or Wash. certificate.

Unschoolers who have decided they want to get a teaching credential (and who have, or will have, a bachelor's degree) might find this an enjoyable way to earn one . For more information, contact Eleanor at 2706 10th St E., Seattle WA 98102; 206827-8708.

LIVE-IN BABYSITTER In "Live-In Teenagers," (GWS #15, p.2) Sandy Sapello wrote about having found live-in babysitters for her children, and how helpful they had been to her. A friend of mine, Sylvia Zwick (Box 123, Shrub Oak NY 10588), who has recently graduated from high school and who has been a GWS reader from the start, just wrote me that she would like very much to be a live-in babysitter for a while in a family with young children. Any interested families might write to her directly.

May I suggest also that any families who would like to find live-in babysitters, or any other people who would like to be live-in babysitters, write to us . We will help you get in touch with each other.

KIDS EXCHANGE? A reader writes: ... As I was reading GWS, an idea formulated itself, mostly from the article about the father putting up an ad at the ski resorts for employment for his son [GWS #12). Why don't we have a "student" exchange program

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #17

3 among GWS people? Families that live by the ocean may want their children to have access to the mountains, or families with farms could take a teenager in for the summer to help with the chores, etc . We could use GWS as the advertising medium since the families involved would want to share the same ideals ...

MORE CHEAP TEXTS Nancy C. Fletcher, Roseland Research Library, PO Box 356, Roseland FL 32957, writes : ... We have a great quantity of used textbooks for grades K-12 which we obtained at auction from the local school system . Some are rather antiquated "Alice and Jerry " type readers but most are fairly recent - no doubt State directives called for a new publishing house and these books had to be disposed of in the quickest manner possible. The high school texts include such subjects as drafting, metalworking, and journalism . We would be happy to get these books into the hands of people that can use them. Our only quandary is how to cover the costs of handling and shipping . On an individual basis we could probably fill requests at $1.50 per book. On a quantity basis we would @ntertain any offers ...

LEGAL INFO RESOURCE A reader writes: ... 1 discovered last week that the League of Women Voters in Pennsylvania (and probably other states too) runs a " Legislative Information Center" with a toll-free number ( in Pa., 800-692-7281). I called them last week and received in the mail today eight pages of copies of Pennsylvania school law . I am sending the League a donation ...

MORE FROM MINNESOTA From John Eidsmoe, the attorney in the recent important homeschooling case in Minnesota (GWS #16): ... 1 did not really expect the court to rule the Minnesota statute unconstitutional for vagueness, although I personally believe it is unconstitutionally vague. My reason for requesting this was to enable the judge to rule in our favor on the k~y point - constitutional exemption for the Lundstens - while appearing to take a middle-of-the-road position, An examination of the decision would indicate that, on the surface, we lost four out of five issues; but we won the one we really wanted. PsychGlogically, I believe a judge is more likely to rule in our favor if he can do so without having to appear to be totally against the educational bureaucracy . . . . In this past session the Minnesota legislature decided to leave the Minnesota statute as it is for the time being [See "Minn. Testimony, " GWS #13]. The primary reason, I am told by friends in the legislature, is that while nearly everyone wanted the law changed, there was about an even division between those who wanted to allow more freedom for private schools (primarily conservatives) and those who wanted to clamp down on private schools. Both sides apparently decided they did not want

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #17

to risk a showdown at the present time ...

RENEWALS If your subscription expires with GWS #18, this is your last chance to get the Early Renewal Bonus. If we r eceive your check or money order before we send #18 to the mailing house (probably mid-December), we will extend your sub for one extra issue.

Remember also that we witl have to raise our rates after #18 comes out, so save by acting now.

A reader writes: " Still can't figure out when my subscription ends .

I know the numbers on my label are a clue." Yes, indeed they are . The lpst two digits on the line below your name tell the number of~issue with which the sub expires . If that number is 18 (or 17'), it's time to renew. $10 for 6 issues, $18 for 12 issues, or $24 for 18 issues.

For the curious, the 4- or 5-digit number above your name is your account number at the mailing house. The other numbers tell us how many copies of each issue you receive (lX, 2X, etc), and in some cases, which issue you started with .

If you're in a group subscription, you'll have to find out from the group person when the sub expires. Also, if you have had a GWS subscription under your own name, and later become part of a group subscription under someone el~e's name, we'd be grateful if you'd let us know.

Sometimes I look through our expired list, qnd see the name of a subscri ber who I know has enjoyed GWS and perhaps written us many good letters, and I worry a little about h aving lost an old friend. Just a word from you will relieve my mind .

From our latest mailing list I see that of the people who h ave ever been GWS subscribers, a little over half still are. People with experience in magazines tell us that is very g09d. Perhaps so. But I worry a little about all the people who stopped subscribing without telling us why . So if there are things in GWS that you do not like, or if there are things not in it that you would like to see in, please tell us, whil e still a subscriber. We won 't promise to change, but we certainly will give (as we always have given) serious thought to anything you may suggest.

Please let us hear from you.

By ~he way, sometimes people say, "I've lent out all my back issues of GWS and don't have any left." \vhy not bump your sub to a 2X or 3X sub - then you'll have extra copies to lend. And they'll only cost you 33¢ a copy. For so much material, hard to find ' elsewhere, a bargain.

GOOD NEW§? FROM PA. From a Pennsylvania reader: ... 1 would like to share our first year's experiences at home schooling with you . ... We have good relations with the Superintendent of Schools for our district . We hesitate to ask him yet about being listed in GWS since he is considered a radical and has many enemies in our community. When the opportunity seems right, though, I will ask his permission. I do not wish to jeopardize in any way our chances of home-schooling, or the chances of any others who may want to in the future. I know you understand

this.

We have been approached by approximately five families who want to home-school. We have been able to givg them the legal boundaries and how we accomplished it, so we feel that we have in a small way been able to open the door for other interested families in our community.

We have two sons, 11 and 9. I was a tutor for four years in our local Christian day schools. We are born-again believers .

Though I felt the Christian schools were better than our public schools, my heart would ache as I'd watch the children (including my own) grow tired and paler in color as 3 o ' clock neared, only to go home and h ave several hours of homework to do, then maybe a little play time, then bed, with dinner hastily gulped down somewh ere in between. The days were almost always the same, and I found myself looking forward to the vacations as much as the children. It was our only break and free time, at least until the higher level grades when term papers would be assigned for vacations. I resigned myself to the plight of them doing these things for twelve years, wishing there was a way out . .. . Deep inside I felt we should be doing more to free their minds, and that whatever wonderful experiences we could let happen, we should.

But where was the time? How would we ever be able to do what we wanted and still get "educated" as ilie world demanded?

-------Well, the answers started coming fast . I was getting desperate inside, and I asked our Lord to step in and show us the way. It was scriptural to teach our children at home, and unless the Lord had some fantastic reason for having our children suffer in the schools, I knew He would help us . ... Solar Energy Digest had a tiny notat~on about GWS ... We subscribed and found we were agreeing with many of the premises set down ...

Our favorite bookstore had HOW CHILDREN FAIL, INSTEAD OF EDUCATION, and EDUCATION AND ECSTASY ... Our whole outlook on schooling started changing dramatically. ... 1 looked in the laws I had around, from trying unsuccessfully to start a school of my own several years before, and found one that fit our family . . . . The law said that children could be taken out of the publiC schools of Pa. if they had a properly qualified tutor approved by the District Superintendent of Schools . As a certified teacher I was qualified; now to be approved .

The next step was to contact the District Superintendent . .. He said it was a fine idea, arranged an appointment to meet the boys and me, looked over my certificate, and told me that it was all right for us to tutor the boys; but, what he wanted was a written program of what I would be doing during the year, what curriculum I would be using ( they let me use the Christian curriculum I liked), and he set up another appointment . .. I did what he asked, and when we met about a week later, he dictated his letter in our presence, wished us luck, and two days later, our typed, signed letter of approval was in our mail.

Praise the Lord! . .. The Superintendent had one apprehension in letting us do this .

The boys might miss out socially and become introverts. So we assured him that we would do our best to give them contact socially. And what a social year it was'

4 Some of the children the boys knew would call and invite them to participate in the activities at the church and school. Some would invite them overnight, and we'd have them overnight, too. Some of the school children really missed seeing the boys, and the boys missed seeing them, but that was basically all the social life they had in school . There was no talking in the classroom, the hall, when going to the bathroom, getting a drink, or at lunch until they were completely finished eating; the morning recess of 15 minutes was for a planned exercise program with no talking. So the only "social" life they had in school was after gulping down lunch, and the 20 minute recess in the afternoon . So with our homeschooling, the boys had more "social" time with the children than they ever had in school (I know because I was at school daily helping to keep order. ) .. . We had one problem during the year and that was finding a routine that suited all of us . . . . At first we tried to work all together, each son working on his grade level, but both working on the same subject. This didn't work for us . ... Finally, we settled in on a one-day, one child routine. One day I would teach John all his subjects, while Jim was responsible to read and match his spelling words. He could do the reading and spelling at any time of the day or evening; the rest of the time he could play and do what he wanted . The next day I would work with Jim, and John would be free.

They really liked this, and since they enjoy reading and spelling, this was no burden to them. ... We started our day around 9 a.m., since that was when we all were finally up and finished with breakfast. It would take us about three hours to do the day ' s work, and the rest of the day the boys were free.

Some days we took off completely to go places of interest to them, such as playing in the local p~ going to a peanut-butter factory nearby, and visiting McDonalds for a tour and some goodies. Since we considered life to be learning, and learning life, school was always in and always out. It was great' We did not work at a table or desk, we bought each of them a note book and we sat on the sofa together and held our books on our laps. It is wonderful to be able to sit next to your own child and touch arms and h ug if you want or wrestle and still get work done. We could yell and cry and laugh; we could read with the most ridiculous expressions whenever we wanted, and no one cared' The only commitments we had with the school district was to meet with the superintendent in the middle of the year, so he could see how we were doing, and then to have the boys tested again in May. We agreed . They did very well on the tests again this year, and the superintendent was very pleased with what the boys knew and how poised they were as he conversed with them.

My sons were relaxed all year, and were free from any illnesses . In school they averaged 14 days a marking period sick, and I didn't do much better . I got sick twice t h is year, but they did not. The only time they remarked about even a belly-ache was when we had to go back to school in May for the standardized tests . ... We applied again this year for home-schooling, and received our letter of approval in July. It was a

great year of mixed, fantastic experiences, and I cannot stand the thought of ever sending them back to that race unless they would choose to go . ..

UPDATE FROM CANADA Freda Lynn Davies of Ontario (GWS #13) writes: . .. Kevin (9) and I went to Europe for 5 weeks in April and May, travelling mainly by train and finding accommodation in hostels and private houses. Kevin was the official photographer and he seemed pretty pleased with the results. I certainly get so involved observing the surroundings that I forget to take pictures and afterwards wish that I had some to look at.

You may remember that Kevin had in his three school years developed a strong aversion to anything connected with the 3 Rs and would state flatly that he couldn't read, as if that were the end of the matter. For most of his first year out of school I rarely asked him to read. When I did, he would try a few words, then get impatient, lose interest, clam up, and stomp off. He also seemed too proud to ask for or accept help, and absolutely hated being "taught." So I let the matter rest for many months, though I continued to read to him. I can't imagine many educators who would approve of that tactic.

By late April almost a year had passed from the day I had informed Kevin's teacher I would no longer be sending him to school. We were in a crowded Paris railway station (Care de Lyon) late in the evening preparing to board an overnight train to Marseilles. Both of us were tired after a long day of sightseeing, and I think Kevin was a little perturbed by his first full day of total immersion in foreign sounds. We spied a small section of English language paperbacks at a newsstand, and he immediately pounced on a couple of them, each with about 120 pages of Peanuts cartoons. In the next few days I read them to him 3 or 4 times, and then suddenly he started reading them aloud page after page non-stop, including the big words like "opthamologist " and "impregnable." Later in Copenhagen we picked up another one, and the same thing happened. He kept reading t h em over and over, obviously enjoying the sounds emanating from his own mouth, as he steadily improved his pronunciation and dramatization.

It's curious that all this happened in foreign countries . It was as if Kevin were homesick for his own language and culture, and was seeking ways of hanging onto them . It makes me wonder if he and many others have been stuffed with too much language words, words, words, - from television, teachers, and parents, and need a relative scarcity of it in order to develop a hunger for it. ... After the big binge in Europe, we have been living a very quiet, poorer but richer life, with the woods, lakes, and hills of northwestern Ontario outside our back door . . .. The local public school people have been very cooperative and understanding since learning of Kevin's out - of-school learning activities . . .. The regional supe r visor that I visited in June tried to encourage me to enroll Kevin in school, but told me there was no need to obtain board approval for educating a child outside the system. I wonder if this

stance is now the official one in Ontario since the ruling in Lambton County (GWS #13).

Kevin has been getting a little itchy to find some friends, and though he doesn't want the "teacher" part of school, he does want some of the recreational and social parts.

After my experience in Winnipeg, and after hearing of the experiences of other parents with many schools, my expectations weren't very high when I requested the local principal to consider allowing Kevin to visit the school from time to time. I'm not sure if I looked bug-eyed with my jaw touching my toenails, or not, but I was certainly happily astonished that he had no objection whatsoever . Kevin and I have met with one of the teachers who seems to have one of those pleasant isolated islands of comfort within the system. He teaches mainly six year olds, but has agreed to have Kevin visit his class, probably for the first time next week ...

TEACHING THEMSELVES From Carrie Smith (VT): ... 1 forgot to report that our pre-schoolers are doing so great without any FORMAL teaching' Rebecca (5), who had been expected, though not legally compelled to attend kindergarten, is teaching herself to read. Oh, I know I have read about this, and what happens with others, but it's very exciting to watch it happening' It's left up to HER (I didn't even think up her ideas, etc., or ask her to do it; she just started on her own) and SHE has just started picking out words, or asking us what they are. We have one book on nature that shows everything - all kinds of animals, flowers, fish, dogs, etc. It gives the name under it, and a description . She got into this book, and started guessing at the names, going by the picture of it, and also the first letter of the word naming it. She has also picked out words from the Dr . Seuss books, and sometimes finds the same words in ANOTHER BOOK (which thrills her') One word she knows is "zoo." We get a box of library books every two weeks, for us all, right down to the 2 year old, who picks out her own books (and isn't restricted to any special age limit to subject, etc.) She likes the Ran,er Rick nature magazines [see GWS #16 and we tell her the names of everything . . .

MORE BABIES ON THE JOB From a Chicago suburban paper: ... To Patty Stockdreher, the baby [son Lake] presented a common choice for mothers - stop working or pay for baby sitters. She asked her husband, Don, if he would work nights and mind Lake by day. "He wasn't too keen on it," Patty said.

So she decided to stay home for three months. After six weeks, Pamela Chernivsky, a La Leche League member, told Patty of a job at Jim Stark's Dexter Machine Company.

Stockdreher called Stark for an interview. He told her to bring the baby. He asked if she had a sitter and she said she didn ' t.

For Patty's first three days of work, Lake stayed with the wife of another Dexter worker. Bored her, too. The woman told Stockdreher the child was quiet enough to stay at

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5 work with her. . .. So now Lake spends his working hours in a crib beneath the "Tubing Rod and Bar Pipe" calendar ... Or he rests in his mother's arm while she pecks at the adding machine or phones clients, who sometimes ask her, "Hey, do I hear a kid in the background?"

"I was a little worried," Stockdreher says. "When Lake does get rowdy I get flustered. But he's pretty content. He isn't confined much. If you're at home with a baby you have to watch him there, too. It isn't like you can relax and read a book."

"Who am I to deprive a baby of its mother?" Jim Stark asked. "It's perfectly natural for Lake to be here as far as I'm concerned. It's sort of a constant reminder of what the hell the world is all about. We get so wrapped up in making money that so often we lose perspective on why we are working . The baby presents the brightness of the future."

Once each morning, Lake gets his feeding behind a file cabinet. Lil Koldowski, the receptionist, lullabies him and Norma Frederick visits daily from the machine shop.

Nobody has anything but dandy things to say about Lake, although the standard line holds it will be "interesting" when he starts crawling.

"He's a nice baby," Koldowski said. "I feel like his grandmother."

"Very contented," Stark said.

"He doesn't cry like a bottle-fed baby." He wailed only once, Stark added, on the day the Internal Revenue Service auditors arrived ...

The Sept . 22 Boston Globe ran a story saying that Joan Lunden, cohost of the ABC-TV show "Good Morning America," demanded and won the right to take her ten-week-old daughter to the office with her, and has it written into her contract that the baby will go with her on all her assignments. Of course, the studio provides a nurse, and they don't make such arrangements for their ordinary help.

But it's a good step, and congratulations to Joan Lunden for keeping her ba by with her .

THE PROCESS OF WORK A friend told me that her son, going on four, who had been very happy at his nursery school, was beginning to get a little bored and dissatisfied with it. She said she thought perhaps he might be ready for more "structure . " I wrote in reply: ... My feeling is that E, like all bright and happy little children, is strongly pulled in the direction of adults and their understanding, competence, and skill, and may find it boring or frustrating to have to spend so much time with little folks who don't know any more and can't do any more than himself. I take it that this is close to what you have in mind when you say he needs more structure. I tend to avoid that term, since almost all who use it mean by it only one thing - some adult standing over the child telling him what to do and making sure he does it.

What E may need to be introduced to are more tasks and activities that take more time, concentrati o n, effort, and skill. This isn't a matter of "giving" him harder tasks and making him stick at them until they are finished. In such situations the controlling factor is the will of the

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #17

adult, not, as it should be, the re quirements of the task. It would help if E and other kids his age could see older children choosing and undertaking various tasks and working on them over a period of time until they were completed. Children need to get some sense of the processes by which good work is done. The only way they can learn how much time and effort it takes to build, say, a table, is to be able to see someone building a table, from start to finish. Or painting a picture. Or repairing a bicycle, or writing a story, or whatever i t may be.

At the Ny Lille Skole in Denmark the six adult "teachers" had all done many kinds of work before they began teaching, and all brought to the school a number of visible and interesting skills. One woman was a good musician and dancer, another a skilled weaver, several of the men were good at working with tools in both wood and metal. One teacher was actually making himself a bass viol at the school. It took a long time; it was a serious instrument. Some of the older kids worked with him on the project; younger kids hung around, helped a little, asked questions; still younger children watched less attentively, for shorter stretches of time. But even the youngest children were aware of that project going on, and kept track of its progress.

Children need to see things done well. Cooking, and especially baking, where things change their texture and shape (and taste yummy), are skills that children might like to take part in. Typing might be another, printing still another, and either or both of these could be added to bookmaking and bookbinding. These are crafts that children could take part in from beginning to end. Skilled drawing and painting, or woodworking, might be others.

Adults must use the skills they have where children can see them. If they have no skills to speak of, they should learn some, and let the children see them learning, even if only as simple a thing as touch typing.

They should invite children to join them in using these skills. What we want to see is children being slowly drawn, at higher and higher levels of energy, commitment, and skill, into more and more serious and worthwhile adult activities.

In this connection, your own work as writers, though perhaps less easy for E to understand than the work of a carpenter or farmer, may be less opaque and meaningless than you think. Your work is a process that takes place in time. You begin (if you work like me) with raw materials and scraps of notes, write rough drafts, correct them, change them, finally produce a smooth draft, turn this over to someone else for further editing, see it go into galleys or some kind of proof sheets and eventually find its way into the finished newspaper or magazine. Even if what you write about might not make much sense to E~will surely be interested in many of the things you actually do. Thus, at every stage of the process outlined above, you might show him what you have done and talk a little (as much as he wants) about what you are going to do next, and why. In the end, you could show him your articles when they finally get into print. You might even keep all your notes and rough drafts for a particular article, and on a big piece of cardboard paste up an exhibit showing everything from first steps to

final product. This would also be an easy and interesting thing to do in schools; it would show students what none of them now know or could imagine, the amount of work that goes into serious writing.

It is this sense of process over time that children want and need to learn about, and much of this is visible in your own work . And even if you can ' t show him the shop where your own articles are printed, you can show him places where some stuff is printed. Even a small OffSet press would be quite fascinating to a small child, the noise, all those things going round and round, the paper flying out with stuff printed on it. A mystery' But he would see that a grown-up understands it and controls it, and think that maybe someday, if he wanted, he could too. And he would know that you were not, because you thought he was small and stupid, excluding him from a central part of your life.

SCHOOL IN MO. From a mother in Kansas City: . .. Good news' I've found a school here, "Jonathan's Place," which has agreed (with enthusiasm') to a program whereby John (who is now nine) will attend school one week a month and "study independently" the other three weeks . . . . The people at Jonathan's Place, Pat and Marshall Martin (4301 Harrison, Kansas City MO 64110; 753-5392) have given me permission to tell you that they would be willing to talk to other families who might be interested in working out programs similar to ours. They would, of course, want to evaluate each individual situation, but they seem very willing to explore all kinds of new ideas . . . . John will also be able to go on any field trips he would like during the other three weeks - and they take many ...

ON ALTERNA TIVE SCHOOLS Fernando Gonzalez and Mary Classen in California asked me to write something about alternative schooling for a book they are doing. I wrote in part: . .. 1 want to do away with the idea of compulsory learning, and the idea that learning is and should be separate from the rest of life. Above all, I want to break down the barriers that separate children from adults and their work and concerns.

Most alternative schools meet my objections to only one of these three basically wrong ideas, the idea of compulsory learning. Many do not even do that; t hey are just a little more subtle than regular schools in the ways in which they tell children what to learn and try to make them learn it. And they leave untouched the great isolation between learning and serious work, or other parts of life, and between children and adults.

It's OK to have some special places for kids, since they have certain needs that in some respect are different from the needs of adults.

At different ages they need different kinds of places to play, to run around, to make noise, to learn certain physical skills, and to mingle with each other. But they should not have to spend all their time in those special kid places. The adult world should be as far as possible open to

6 them, and they should not have to go to special kid places unless they want to.

People say to me quite often, "I want to work with kids." What they really mean is that they want to work on kids, to do things to or for them, usually without their consent, which they think will do them good. I often say to these well-meaning people, "Why not find some work worth doing, and then try to find ways to make it possible for young people to join you in this work?" This is very different from starting an alternative school.

Children should be able to have contact with many adults who are o~t足 side their own families, and whose work is not taking care of them. They should be able, if they wish, to make friends with adults, who mayor may not be friends of or even known to their parents. They should be able to see adults at work, and if they wish, to share in that work according to their energy and skill. To make this possible, even on a community or neighborhood level, will take some planning, organization, and work . If we want to call the place where this work is done a " school," I suppose we can . But I would much prefer to call it something else. If we are inventing something new, and in our time this is new, I'd rather think of a new name for it than bend an old name out of shape to fit it.

There seems to me something deeply and even dangerously ambiguous about the relation between adu lts ("teachers" or whatever) and children in an alternative school. In most schools the relation is stark and clear . School is the Army for kids.

Adults make them go there, and when they get there adults tell them what to do, bribe and threaten them into doing it, and punish them if they don't. When the teachers in an alter native school try (as they should) to give up this bad relationship, it is very unclear what they put in its place. If they are not there to tell the children what to do, what are they there for? To "help" the children? Did the children ask for this help? Can they get away from it? Sometimes alternative sc h ools talk about teachers and students being equal. If so, why are the adults paid? And to do what? One of the reasons teachers burn out so quickly at alternative schools, even faster than in regular schools, is that their position, task, and function are so unclear.

Are they the students' servants, or their bosses, or if neither, then what?

Is the task of adults in alternative schools to think up interesting things for the students to do and then try to seduce or cajole them into doing them? Is their task to be available if students want their help, but otherwise to stay out of their way? Neither of these seems to me like good life-time work for serious adults.

I personally would hate to be in the position of having to think up things for children to do and to find ways to get them to do them. If and when they ask me, I often show them how to do things I like to do, so that we can do them together . But I am not going to do things that bore me in the hope that they may interest or be good for them. Thus, I am always glad to play my cello with children around, and to offer them a chance to play if they want . But if they don't want, that's fine with me; I am not trying to "get them interested" in the cello. I am not going to

take up painting in the hope that, seeing me, children will get interested in painting. Let people who already like to paint, paint where children can see them .

When adults corne into our office with c hildr en, if we are doing anything which children could do, we ask them if they would like to help, and they almost always say Yes. They work hard and well, and are a real help. I think children could and would like to help adults much sooner and in more ways than most adults give them a c hance to. An important part of our work here at GWS is trying to find ways to help that to happ en.

CHILDREN WORKING From Mabel Dennison (ME): ... I am thinking of young people, ages 9-14, in this informal survey of work in our rural community. I know of children who do volunteer work, exercising and feeding animals at an animal s helter . I know of children here and in another town who go to nursing homes regularly to visit with the elderly . This was arranged by the small "free" schools they attend . One child has visited the same older person for three years .

Children whose families own farm animals, or a dairy, or a vet clinic, do regular chores feeding animals. I know of three children who have done enough fishing to make a useful contribution of food to their families, and children who can tinker with and repair bikes and mini-bikes. I know o f only one young person who loves plants and does a large amount of gardening.

The paid work here for young people consists of harvesting strawberries and vegetables for a truck gardener (12 and up), picking blueberries, picking up apple drops, gathering apple tree brush left from pruning (1 2 and up). And, of course, there is the usual paid work for neighbors, mowing lawns, babysitting, cleaning yards and houses.

It is too bad there isn't more work for c hildren .. .

FATHER AS TEACHER From "The Leopolds: A Family of Naturalists," in Science, 3/7/80: ... Aldo Leopold exerted the same fascination on hi s children. As a family friend observes, " He had this amazing courtesy to the young . You felt intelligent talking to him because he was so attentive and respectful of your ideas." For the children, Aldo was a naturalist, teacher, and master craftsman who impressed them by what they speak of as their father ' s quiet assurance and gentle example.

"Start ing when I was five," says Starker, "Dad and I used to go down to the Rio Grande River on his bicycle, with me seated on the handle bars. I don't remember talking land ecology at the age of five, but it wasn 't very long after that that he would stand out on the hillside and talk about why quail were in one place and not anot her, or why ducks preferred a particular pond because of some food he recognized in the water ." But Aldo usually began by asking Starker what he thought. "He treated us with considerable dignity - I suppose that had as much as anything else to do with our being so in-

tensely interested in what he had to say, " Starker says . . .. Inspired and encouraged by their father ' s example, all the Leopolds became craftsmen . At Christmas, it was their custom to exchange handmade gifts . "The tradition was that, if you did it by hand, it was good," says Luna, who still counts as a prized possession a fly rod that Starker made for him years ago. Luna thinks this emphasis on craftsmans hip helped prepare him and the others to become scientists. "Science is a craft," he says. . .. Of all the Leopolds, Starker had perhaps the closest relationship with his father and his career parallels Aldo's more closely than do the careers of the others. As youngsters, he and Luna were always ready to go along with their father on hunting trips, and when he could not take them both, they would draw straws .

"If I won, fine. If Luna won, then I would trade him out of it with one thing or another. Every damned thing I had except my pocket knife," Starker recall s . "So I had the advantage of sitting around campfires with Dad most of my early life." ...

SELF-TAUGHT: TENNIS . . .

A reader reminds me that Bjorn Borg, the five-times Wimbledon champion and one of the greatest players in the history of tennis (some say the greatest), was self-taught. She is quite right. He taught himself to playas a small boy. The very heavily top-spinned strokes he taught himself, especially the two-handed backhand, were not in fashion in those days, and when he became old enough and skilled enough to attract the attention of tennis pros, they tried to get him to change his game to the more conventional flat strokes. But he stubbornly refused and stuck to the way he had invented and was used to. Nowadays most serious young players are being taught to hit the way that Borg does.

. .. AND COMPUTERS ...

Apple Computers, the multimillion dollar company that helped pioneer the horne-computer movement, was founded by two young college dropouts. In 1975, Steve Jobs, then 21, and Stephen Wozniak, 25, who had been friends at high school, met again at a computer club in Palo Alto, Calif .

Both had been doing design work for electronics companies, but when their employers refused to fund their personal-computer projects, they started building their own in a family garage.

Not long after they built the first working models of the Apple, they got financial help from " venture capitalists, " investors such as Arthur Rock and the Rockefellers who look for innovative ideas to support.

Apple has been exanding at a tremendous rate ever since, and is second only to Radio Shack in the personalcomputer market.

- DR

... AND ARCHITECTURE From the Boston Globe, 11/26/79: ... How did Lewis Mumford, who never received a formal college degree, become such a qualified generalist, able to comment and write on architecture, urban planning, philosophy and geology if, as was the case,

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #17

7 he was "thrown out of college" in his freshman year because of tuberculosis and told to take it easy?

"Wh en that happened," he said, " I spen t my time walking around New York. I knew the city by direct acquaintance, not by studying the statistics, not by putting figures on a computer but actual l y by having a conversation wit h the buildings . I talked to them and they told me a great deal.

"I first have to experience some thing. I didn't study a rch itecture I looked at buildings . I didn't study geography in the abstract - I walked around the landscape and had conversa tions with the environment before I studied it systematica lly."

Mumford's se lf-teaching was followed by formal enrichment courses at City College, New York University and Columbia.

He feels that far more young peo ple today should go out and study the environment before studying it for mally . . .

Sometimes I feel "gr owing without sc h ooling" should be called "living and lear ning . " (Ed - or learning from li ving . ) I almost forgot, the boys also learned t o operate e l eva tor s by themselves, run errands for th e nurses, and hold conve r sations with their elders, all in a natural situation ...

JOB TICKETS From Behavior Today: ... The retiring president o f Columbia Unive rsity, William J. McGill, said in a recent interview, "There are 2,000 separate advanced degrees that you can get today, each of whic h is a form of occupationa l entry. The substance of education is being eroded and giving way to the use of t he degree sys t em for occ upational ent r y ...

THE FIREMEN'S TEST YOUNG AND OLD More from the Pa . mother: .. . Right after we were approved to home-school, my father was taken serious l y ill with a stroke, so when he had recuperated enough, he was put in a convalescent home for therapy .

Because th e boys and I were free, we would go in each day to visit him.

(They would not have been excused from school for this and probably you may say " Who would want to''') But my father was very depressed and the therapist at the hospital had on his record "uncooperative." This didn't give the therapist at the home much confidence, so we went in each day to make sure they didn't give up on him.

It was a good experience for the boys as well as me, for whenever the grandchildren would come my father would get un-depressed. He would laugh at their antics and then sink back into depression when they would leave .

So we agreed that we would take our books (it was now September) to the home and stay most of the day with their Pop-Pop. It worked out well, for the boys had a large place to do their work and they could go outside to play whenever they got tired of being in. They would go to the vending machines and get us things, and several times when the home was s h ort-handed because of the flu season, we would sort some laundry and the boys would h e l p take i t to the rooms. We made it a game and the patients loved having the boys come in their rooms and talk to them.

At therapy we kept assuring my father that when he could walk well, we ' d take him home, so he really worked hard, and the boys and I would cheer him on, with "You can do it, Pop-Pop. Hurr ay' " " Great, Pop-Pop '" The othe r patients enjoyed us cheer ing them too and when the therapist saw the positive results from thiS, he was glad we were there . We saw many patients recover in weeks that the therapist thought would take months. We don't hope to have this kind of experience again this year, but it showed us that we could take a " sad" situation and turn it 1nto one of rejoicing.

I included the situation about my father in this letter because when one is really Growing Without Schooling, one must 1nclude whatever life hand s o ut and deal wit h it, h opefully turning it into somet hing positive .

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #17

slowest group. The t eac her t old us he just didn't ha ve the ability. Later, I insisted on having him tested to find out the problem. The psychologist who tested him said he s h o uld immediately be placed in a class for the GIFTED. However, there was no other-crass t o put hi m in and hi s teacher d i dn't believe the testing was accurate. If h e has as bad a year this yea r, I hope I can find the courag e to take him out .. .

From The Meas ur ing Cup (See "And Test Info," GW5 #12): ... Firefighters in Bridgeport, CT, were required to pass a truefalse test. Blacks and Hispan ics who h ad been denied firefighting jobs suc ceeded in persuading a federal judge to order the department to cease giving the test after he reviewed the actual questions . These were among the questions applicants had been asked: " True or False - Philosophical questions are a waste of time ; - I can't see h ow intellectuals get personal satisfaction from their impractical lives; - When I was a c h ild, I showed no interest in books." Th e judge could not understand wh y ca ndidates wh o answered " True" to all three questions would make better firefighters ...

PROFESSOR ON TESTING From Behavior Today, 7/14/80: ... After st ud ying the achievement tests of more than 5000 studen t s in Canadian sc h ools and universities, Dr. James C . Powell (Faculty of Educa tion, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario N9E lAS) h as conc lud ed that almost all existing test procedures are defective . . . . Powell ' s critique is more fundamental than that of educational critics wh o see existing test proced ur es as " fai r" f or the white middle class but "bia sed " from the point of view of va r ious minorities and subcultures . Middle - class children and adolescents are also victimized by the fact that these examinations represent a mental set appropriate to the earlier stages of the Indus tri al Revolut i on - " wh en you had to have the ' correc t a n swer ' or the bridges would fall down" - and one that has been obsolete in the sc ientific world since the early part of the twentieth century ...

A STRANGE DIAGNOSIS . .. ... 1 have really enjoyed your magazine. I am a "retired " sc h ool teacher wit h two small chi ldr en ages 6 and 3. We experienced school last year for the first time as parents and wow - it was really different. My son started out wit h a multitude o f problems that h adn 't seemed to bother us at hom e. He was placed in the

... AND ANOTHER A pa rent writes in The National Foundation for Gifted and Creat1ve Ch11dren Newsletter (395 Diamond Hill Rd, Warwick RI 02886 ): . . . 1 intend to fulfill my responsibility a nd right as a parent to protect my c hildr e n from a harmfu l atmosphere which will eventually transform their crea tive energies from avenues of l earning t o patterns of aggression and destruction. The ve ry characteristics whic h define them as creatively gifted work against them in an atmosph ere of conformity and enforced rigidity. Because of a preferred way of learning, labels such as "inatten tive" and "di sruptive " h ave been used against them. It is, to me, ironic that a child performing in the 99th percentile of hi s peer group upon testing and evaluation s h ould be labeled "le arning disabled," unless it is the learning methods themselves that are in fact disabling him ...

LEARNING DISABILITIES To a friend wh o insisted that some child r en really do have "Learni n g Disabilities," I wrote : ... 1 know there are internal obstacles to learning, since I encounter them in myself. What I don't admit a nd in fact stout l y deny is 1) that these s hould be considered as diseases or disorders and 2) that t h ere is any good reason to infer t h at these obstacles are primarily p hy siolog ical or neurological 1n c hara cter .

Th e re is a very bad tendency in modern psyc h ology to mix up the two meanings of the words "normal" and " abnormal ." Strictly speaking, "nor-

ma l" means nothing more than "usual,"

i .e., the high point on the distribution curve . But doctors, psychologi sts, etc . increasingly tend to assume that IIn ormal" a lso means "ri ght, proper, correct, desirable," and that "abnormal " means not simply "unusual" but also "wrong, incorrect,

sick ." You will admit that this is a semantic, philosophical confusion of the h igh est order.

In any of the literature I have s een, the LD people make no distinc tion between LD as observed behavior a nd LD as inf erred causes (neuro l ogicalor otherwise) of that behavior.

Until they begin to understand the importance of this distinction, and be gin to make it clear in their talk a nd writings, there is little reason to take them seriously .

You describe C . It sounds to me like a classic stress reaction, of the kind I d escribed in HOW CHILDREN FA I L, and that I still encounter, i . e., the day before yesterday, when playing music a little faster than I can really play it .

You say, "Th e n eurologist found plenty wrong." Neurologists do not directly observe nervous systems.

8 They observe behavior, and make inferences about the causes of that behavior. Did this particular neurologist test any other hypotheses about the causes of C's behavior, such as 1) that it might be a stress reaction 2) that it might have something to do with diet and/or fatigue 3) that C might have some of the kinds of confusions about the meanings of right and left, or forwards and backwards, that I have written about in GWS? I would cheerfully bet $10 that he didn ' t. If he did, I'd like to know how h e did.

I return to my first-p0int, about the tendency to call the unusual "wrong." Your words confirm my point. The neurologist found plenty "wrong," you say. In what sense was it wrong other than unusual?

As Einstein knew, experiments do not prove theories. The fact that Doman-Delacato patterning techniques work, i . e. improve reading in children, does not necessarily prove that their theories of learning or nonlearning are correct. People built perfectly good furnaces and steam engines when they had mistaken ideas about the nature of heat and energy.

I never heard of a method for dealing with learning disabilities that worked, that actually improved Eerformance, that did not involve enormous reduction of stress, anxiety, guilt, self-blame, self-hatred.

I have never heard of any methods that were anywhere near as successful as those experienced and described by people like Dennison, Herndon, Fader (and myself), which addressed themselves as directly as ~ossible to the reduction of stress an to the use of the real interests of the students (they read what they wanted to, for their own pleasure, and without having to be tested, etc . ) Over and over again we have seen children, way behind in reading, gain four, five, or more years in grade level in a ~ear by the use of such methods. Rea ing technologists rarely, if ever, match these results .

Mothers write me letters about their own children's letter or word reversals stopping within a few months or even weeks of their being taken out of school. ... The schools would solve 99.9% of their "reading problems " if they simply gave children plenty of time each day to read whatever they wanted, free of tests, judgements, corrections, grading, and so, of the possibility of failure, humiliation, and shame . Until they do this - which won't be soon - I refuse to believe in what they tell me about LD . After they have done it (if and when ~ ever do), in the tini population of non-readers which w~ 1 then remain, we can look for other causes - which even then may have to do with diet, intellectual confusion, family problems, power struggles, etc.

WHAT SCHOOLS TEACH From the newsletter of the Feingold Association of Minnesota, 6800 S Cedar Lake Rd, St Louis Park MN 55436: . .. Walt Disney Educational Media Co., a division of Walt Disney Productions, has prepared a series of educational materials in the form of four filmstrips, running anywhere from seven to nine minutes, attacking the health food industry. The filmstrips are provided for use in school systems as a guide to teach elementary children the "correct" story on nutrition.

Filmstrip #1, "I Eat What I Like Regardless," claims that health food lovers are "devotees," food faddists are very unscientific, while the rest of the world is normal.

Filmstrip #2, "Food Fads - You Bet Your Life," claims that no food is a health food, and that, in fact, certain h ealth foods can be highly toxic and dangerous.

Filmstrip #3, "Is Natural Healthy? " refers to health food faddists as being overly excited about chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and food additives, and says these are not only necessary but actually beneficial .

Filmstrip #4, "I s There a Perfect Diet?" suggests that health food diets and any type of weight loss diet that has been thought of today are bizarre and do not work.

Throughout the entire four filmstrips, the media company goes to great lengths to justify white bread, white sugar, chemical colorings and additives, preservatives, chemical pesticides and fertilizers . It shows, in a favorable light, products from General Mills, Pillsbury, and other major refined food processors in America, and offers an unfavorable depiction of health food stores and of products from vitamin and supplement companies ...

WHA T SCHOOLS TEACH - 2 A mother sent us these quotes from her child ' s teachers. Her child was not allowed to read books during "reading" classes in school, though she tested in the 99th percentile in "reading skill" tests.

"If your daughter would just apply herself a little harder I think s h e could get it. She has got to understand that much of the work done in school is boring and tedious."

- Fifth grade teacher.

"I know some of this work is boring for your daughter, but you ' ve got to understand that's what school is all about." - Second grade teacher.

"These kids have got to understand that LEARNING isn ' t FUN' '" Elementary principal .

BE SOCIAL - OR ELSE! From Susan Goss (NY): Feb. 4 ... My husband and I work with our kids almost every day - doing math, hel ping them type letters to their relatives, listening to them read, reading to them, writing cap tions to their stories and novels yes, novels' I buy diary books wit h blank pages and my older daughter illustrates whole books with the continuing adventures of her fictional characters. I do the writing as she dictates it, for while s he writes very well, this is faster. We include a phot o of the author at ti.e end with a short biography. There is a table of contents, copyright date and dedication.

People say, "I don't know how to teach my c hild." We have found that the main ingredient here is to be attentive to the questions and interests of the child. Sh e will point the way.

So while we are sending our kids to public school, they are getting their education at home ...

Aug . 29 ... The last sentence of that letter is no longer true. We

took Sarah out of her public school kindergarten room last winter. ... We sent Sarah to public school kindergarten hoping for the best but expecting the worst. We felt that if we became active in the school, selected her teachers personally, and monitored the situation, it might work out. When she started kindergarten she was already reading (she was reading books that I had read in the fourth and fifth grades') and writing pages and pages of stories in which she sounded out words and wrote them phonetically - without help.

She was happy and enthusiastic at first. She loved riding the bus .

Her teacher refused to do any academic work with her at her level . She was taught the sounds of the consonants, but this did not bother her.

The problem arose because her teacher decided Sarah was backward socially and that she needed to be cured . At first she gently pushed Sarah to be more out-going and "join in more."

But when the cure didn't take, the teacher became impatient and in an angry voice asked Sarah why she could not be like everyone else.

Sarah was crushed and angry. She didn't immediately tell us what happened, but she was very angry at home. She was constantly saying she hated people, even people she didn't know, like waitresses in restaurants .

She came home from school tired and in a bad mood. She began to say she didn ' t feel well and didn't want to go to school .

We kept her home. When it was clear to me that she didn't ever want to go back, I tried to find out what had happened. Sarah cried when she told us about the pressures her teacher had been putting on her. She seemed ashamed, also, and this hurt me the most. Sarah felt she had failed her teacher and that was why the teacher had lost patience with her and stopped liking her. At about this time, Sarah and I and my younger daughter Maggie flew to California to visit their grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, and cousins. They were shocked at the change in Sarah. She was very hostile, and her hostility was inappropriate in the loving atmosphere she was in.

When we got back home I searched for a new school and found a Montessori kindergarten in which the teacher was very sympathetic to my story.

Although she had more children than she had originally intended to have, she said she would take Sarah. She said she thought that Sarah's reading ability would make her an asset to the class' Her public school teacher had considered it a definite liability and thought that it was probably responsible for her social "backwardness"! Her public school teacher, we later found out, had said to Sarah, "You'll never have any friends if you just stand there' You have to approach the other children." To Sarah ' s delight and surprise, many children approached her at her new school and she made three or four friends .

Within a few months she was her old self again.

This fall Sarah and Maggie will go to a Montessori School which has one ungraded classroom for grades 1-3 . . . . The teacher's philosophy jibes with mine and I hope they will be happy in her room. But, if they are not, I am prepared to take them out, keep them at home, or look for another school. In any case, it will not be a public school.

This summer we all travelled by

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #17

9 car 7,000 mi les , going from NY to California and back. During this trip Sarah wrote close to a hundred pages of stories, songs, poems, rhymes, and nonsense rhymes. She writes very quickly, never asks for a word to be spelled, and anyone can easily read what she has written. One of her best stories was one called "The Dog Who Went Bananas and the Cat Who Went Apples." ...

Sept. 15 ... Sarah was pleased with her second day of school [today] because she had been allowed to work on arithmetic for as long as she wanted to, which was from 9-12. She said she stopped because it was lunchtime, which surprised her because the time had gone so fast' To think that teachers could make kids happy by "all ow ing" them three hours of unmolested problem solving' It's really so simple. So I'm guardedly optimistic.

I just thought to throw in these photos, because they are so expressive of the time period I wrote you about. The big one, obviously, is Sarah's public school picture . .. . The two square ones show a more recent and happier time ...

Ed. note - the difference between the tense, unhappy, self-hating in -scho ol face and the relaxed, laughing, confident face after Sarah left the public school are amazing, and heartbreaking - they say more than thousands of words could. Wish we could print them.

HORROR STORIES People send us hundreds of letters telling about callous, stupid, cruel things done to children by school people. We don't print most of them in GWS - we haven't room, and there are too many more important things to write about . What to do with such stories? There are enough to make a large book. But the people who think that schools are bad don't need any more proof of it, and the rest won 't listen .

I think people should start sending these stories to legislators, state and national. If the schools have done or are doing things to your children that you think are stupid, cruel, or wrong, ar.d if they have treated or are treating you in a hostile, contemptuous, evasive, or bullying manner when you have tried to do something about this, write a letter to your elected representatives and tell them about ~t. You coulO alSO write to editors of local and major newspapers in your state.

You might also say something like this: "I think you should know that these things happen, and I hope you will remember them when the school people come around saying that they are the only people who know how to teach children, and trying to get you to give them more power over the nation's children than they have already. "

LAWSUITS A parent, now teaching her children at home with the school district's approval, told me that the Superintende nt seemed to be very nervous about it. I suggested she write him a letter something like this: Dear Dr . , From our recent conversations

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #17

get a strong feeling that someone has put in your mind the thought that at some future time, if I and/or my children feel dissatisfied with t h e results of our home education, we may hold ~ responsible and bring suit against you. I and my children have no such intention and would be willing and happy to say so in writing, in any form you may wish. I gather, however, that this assurance does not altogether relieve your fears. Let me instead point out why, if I and/or my children were to do such a thing, there is no reason whatever to suppose that the courts would award us damages.

In the first place, any court would rule, as a matter of equity and common sense (which are the founda tions of the law), that in strongly and repeatedly demanding the right to teach my own children I was assuming the sole responsibility for the re sults.

In the second place, even in cases where children have suffered severe and obvious educational injury entirel~ as a result of things done or not one in the schools, the courts have refused to award damages to the parents. In one such case in California, a boy of whom the schools had said, all through his school career, that he was doing satisfactory work - and it is worth noting that these schools regularly used standardized tests - turned out at the end of high school to be reading on only a fifth grade level. The parents sued the school system, but the court, as in a similar case on Long Island, refused to award damages, saying that since there were no generally agree d on ideas as to what things should be done in and by schools, the schoo l system could not be judged negligent and liable for not having don e these things.

In another even more flagrant case, a boy was diagnosed as retarded upon entering school, and was so diagnosed throughout his school career.

But when, after leaving school, he tried to get some kind of disability allowance because of his ret ardation, he was tested again and denied the allowance on the grounds that he was not retarded and th at the earlier school diagnosis had been a mistake.

He and hi s parents then sued the school system for having denied him a proper education. But a Court of Appeals in New York State refused to award such damages, saying that it was not the business of the courts to correct or compensate for mistaken educational decisions .

Clearly, if the courts are not willing to awar d damages against school systems in such cases of obvious school malpractice, they are not going to award damages to parents who insisted on being allowed to teach their own child ren. To expect any such thing is wildly unrealistic, and if this possibility has been put into your mind by your lawyers, you have been ill advised.

Aside from that, it is not at all clear to me why you believe that you would be protecting you r self against this hypothetical lawsuit by demanding that my children be tested by standardized achievement tests . . . . During this past year we have enjoyed a very friendly and cooperative relationship with you and the schools, one from which ou r children have benefited a great deal. It would be a shame to put this relationship at risk simply to avoid remote and imaginary legal dangers . Let us instead continue to work together as we

have been, in a spirit of mutual confidence and trust . Sincerely, etc.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS IN CA. Pat and Joe Tennant in California sent this clipping from their local paper: .. . It's easier to start a private school than you may think.

Just fill out a one-page form asking for your name, the number and grades of students, plus some other basic information and you're in business.

"It is the responsibility of the local school district to require private schools to keep proper attendance records. That is all," Virginia Sauls, county schools credentials officer, said.

The state has myriad requirements for public school buildings and teachers . . . . Not so for private schools. The state education code says private schools " must be staffed by teachers capable of teaching." The code does not elaborate further.

A space in the affidavit that the private school must file with the county of fice refers to any county or local ordinances the schools may be subject to. In Tuolumne county, no such ordinances exist.

Mrs. Sauls sends the affidavit on to Sacramento.

The simplicity of the California private sc hool regulations was one reason why Joe and Phyllis Tennant moved to Sonora from Indiana. They have been teaching their children Doug, 12, and Virginia, 13 - at h ome for the last two years. They are a register ed private school, called "Lothl orien . " The Tennants have no set schedule for their children. "We don't have a classroom as such. We don't set out to teach them . We respond to what they ' re interested in at the time," Joe Tennant said. No conventional text books are used by the Tennants, but the y use the public library extensive l y. ... "We don't think it's right for everybody. It's right for us. It is a 24-hour a day job. It's a life philosophy. You have to be willing to answer questions whenever they ask them.

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... County Schools Supt. Orville Millhollin calls the skimpy private sc hool s qualification "a concern I have. There is nobody designated to monitor it. The education code doesn't say it's us. It doesn't say who it should be. There is a statewide movement to bring more accountability into play with the private schools." Such legislation was introduced last year, "but I don't think it will get very far," Millhollin added ...

Pat Tennant wrote : ... Have been wanting to write for months - just to tell you we are still out here doing it . So when the enclosed article appeared in our local paper, it became the incentive I needed . . . . Had I written earlier I would have just told you that the information we received regarding private schools had apparently been right because we have done it for two years now wit h no hassles at all. We file our affidavits (the first in San Jose, Santa Clara County, and th e second in Sonora, Tuolumne County) in Oct . and other than that we haven't

10 seen or talked to any authorities about what we are doing . 路 .. The affidavit states that each school is required to meet local ordinances concerning fire and safety codes but both of the counties we have lived in don't have any ordinances governing private schools. ... We are now in contact with and enjoying the friendship of three other families teaching their children at home in this county . . . . All of our four families have different reasons for what we are doing and different ways of doing it but we like sharing ideas, experiences and support . . ... We are the only family we know who follows your no - school approach. The other families in this letter all have special times and places set aside each day for the study of certain subjects . . . . But we are believers and won't be talked out of what we are doing. We have been using the no-teaching approach long enough to see the results and we feel good about them . I suspect the big gest problem parents have is in shucking off their own socialization. We get only good comments on our children and from people who go out of their way to talk to us about them as well as from those close to us. 路 .. We had a really good winter last year because the local college ( Columbia College) reaches out to the community and our whole family was able to become involved with the Drama Department. We explored this possibility because our daughter Ginger, 13, is interested in drama. Drama turned out to be an over-all education. We performed in The Christmas Carol, Phantom Tollbooth, Under MilkwOOO-and Fiddler On The Roof. In each case we sewed costumes and built scenery, made props and painted. That plus what we have learned by performing - how can you act a part without an understanding of the customs and the times? - really reached a lot of facets of learning. I think maybe we planted the seed of home education and your no-school approach in the minds of a lot of people, some of whom still have that part of life ahead of them (college age people).

And so many people expressed to us how much they enjoyed our children, what a good spot they seemed to be in, and how many skills they had .

Doug, 12, was often in charge of a building project and in charge of props for the performances. 路 . . Ginger and Doug started out this summer by writing a book. It is entitled The Triple Crowns of Power, a fantasy 132 pages long. Ginger did the actual writing, fantasies being her thing, but Doug collaborated on names for the characters and illustrations and did the typing. It was bound in book form with a cloth cover and Joe and I weren't allowed to read it until was all done. We were impressed upon reading it. Those people who try to convince us that children won't learn unless they are force-fed just don't know what they are up agains t ...

GETTING APPROVED A father in Connecticut writes: 路 .. My two older children (10 and 8) are staying out of school this year. They have been released to the jOint custody of their mother and me for one year by the local Board of Education . I write this note to thank you for the effective advice of GWS and to share my experience with other

parents who might consider unschooling a superior educational opportunity for their children.

Three conclusions stand out from my experience: a proposal which meets the specific requirements of the law is essential; the particular circumstances of the family are very important; and sensitivity to the values and objectives of the Board of Education is very useful.

I found the administrators in our town quite cooperative. The local building principal, after reviewing my initial inquiry and proposal, expressed a favorable, personal response but judged that my requests exceeded both his knowledge and authority. He sent the letter to the superintendent. Because I raised the issue of the legality of unschooling the children, the superintendent sought a reading of the state law from the lawyers retained by the school system.

We met to discuss their conclusions.

In a subsequent letter to the superintendent, I summarized my understanding of the conversation. ... 1 felt the need of some sense of what the Board would judge more and less impoItant in a proposal. By good fortune, one Board member, an acquaintance of ten years, lived in our neighborhood . She emphasized thac since the Board members would probably judge the specific program of my proposal a superior educational opportunity for the children, my primary concern should be to establish that the Board had the power to decide and that, further, by presenting a detailed specification of how my program would meet each specific requirement of the state statutes, the Board would have fulfilled its obligation to that state by examining the proposal and questioning me on any points which required clarification.

Our proposal began with an analysis of the specific schooling requirements of the state laws . We committed ourselves to exceed the minimum requirements of the law (in respect to hours and days) and set against the subjects mandated for instruction our intention to provide Calvert Home Study materials, showing how the latter satisfied the former.

Further, Connecticut law empowers local school boards to impose additional schooling specifications beyond those of the state statutes. The local school board had recently completed a very detailed and extensive set of educational objectives. We balanced against those local objectives the resources we could apply to satisfy them in a rather detailed way.

The evaluation we proposed was to have both children take the annual standardized testing given to children of their grade. This included in 3rd and 5th grades the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test, and Math skill and aptitude tests. We also agreed that on condition of the children being accepted into their appropriate grade levels by the Calvert School, we would subscribe to their advisory teaching service to obtain certification that they had completed a year of school work ... Our proposal was both detailed and long, and necessarily so to satisfy the requirements of the statutes and to establish that the children would be offered a superior educational opportunity by unschooling.

The favorable response of the Board Members to our proposal was nearly unanimous. The one critic ("My gut reaction is that what you're proposing is all wrong") did not vote against our proposal but deferred to

the judgment of the Superintendent. ... The final point I emphasize is that our justification for unschooling the children did not criticize the schools at all. Our proposal, in fact, accepted the statement of the school board objectives as valuable guidance ... This acceptance was not merely necessary or politic; it was appropriate. Our town has been fortunate to be served by a Board of Education composed of bright, practical and dedicated people . Further they have shown themselves willing to accept a novel, well-justified proposal.

This observation leads me to a criticism of GWS that I would [ike to make explicit. GWS is scary! People going to prison, children taken away from their parents, endless lawsuits, all because some parents believe their children may be better educated out of school than in it. Maybe America is the repressive, scary place such news suggests; maybe not. If so, perhaps it is changing already because of the kind of level-headed advice GWS presents. I know my proposal was much improved by specific suggestions I first read in GWS, and it worked. Perhaps it is now possible for your readers to go forward with forethought, caution, and confidence ...

[Ed. note] We try to report the facts in this field, and sometimes they are scary. We think that parents who want to teach their own children should know that doing this may be anything from very easy to very hard.

CHILDREN VS. COURSES Wendy Priesnitz, who edits the CANADIAN ALLIANCE OF HOMESCHOOLERS newsletter, writes: ... Heidi ( 8) and Melanie (6) are refusing to do the correspondence courses. Don't blame them' They certainly keep themselves busy, however, Even I am amazed at how fast and well Heidi has learned to read. And she reads constantly, almost .. . until she starts to do the courses, when she soon is heard to say, "I hate reading'" We've said they don'ftlave to ever do the courses, but they seem to feel an obligation to them because they helped get us approved. So from time to time they go at it, only to remember how boring it is and put it away until they've forgotten again ...

Melanie is producing a magazine every week. Calls it "Kids Mag." and photocopies about six copies. Has had it out on time so far, too . She's now producing the issues ahead of time and releasing them at the proper time. Gave me a lecture about the theory behind that, too. The masthead proclaims that she is art director and publisher. Heidi is editor - "because she can read"! . . .

... Must tell you something Heidi and Melanie had going last night had a lot of fun with it. Melanie came up to me and said in a gruff voice, "I'm the government and big people have to go to school'" Heidi said, "Yeah, everyone over 32 years old." (Rolf is 32.) She said, "We'll sneak into the government buildings at night and write our own laws on the back of theirs."

Melanie said, "So that we don't waste paper - I'll bet they always use just the front of paper."

This scenario went on to become more and more ridiculous, until Heidi

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #17

11 said, "Maybe if the government went to school they'd get to know that kids shouldn't need to go." . ..

A SINGING PAINTER Louise Andrieshyn (Man.) wrote last year : ... When Lisey started tempera painting, and that was not till she was 2~ (because, although the paints were sitting right there on the shelf, I was so swamped with other things I just couldn't put together the energy to do anything extra), she always talked as she painted .

I had to dig out the paintings to check how old she was, and t h ey brought tears to my eyes. That first time, she was so excited about it painted nine pictures and I wrote down the main things she said of each one: a priceless diary of that adven ture . The paintings themselves are lovely, a few spectacular; but it's her comments that moved me. Each one of them recalls for me exactly what kind of a person she was at t h at age, especially how open and eager she was about new things and how easily and naturally she grew into whole new fields of learning. Like this: (all yellow painting) " Lookit. I made mustard, Mommy . I made some bananas . " Yet, by the second time she painted, two days later, she was do ing elaborately detailed "Tratratch " (Sasquatch - sometimes called "Big Foot.") I mean, her picture was still non-representational, as the terminology goes, but every stroke of her brush reRresented something to her.

Here's t e comments I recorded, but it appears there was more I didn ' t get down: "Another tratratch . .. There's a big slipper. There's another slipper.

There's his big goo-gooey eyes .

There's a couple eyebrows. There's his big ribbon in his h air - a barette in his hair . There's a big brown belt for him ."

Well, that gives you some idea.

That was almost two years ago so you can imagine the running dialogue she puts out now when she paints' . .

I had vaguely noticed that she had started singing some of her paintings, rat h er than just talking them .

But it was a friend, intrigued by Lisey's painting style, who pointed out to me that L was singing not only in rhythm, but a lso in perfect r7Yr7s and the words even made sense. ve listened a couple times, but haven't had the opportunity to record it . I should tale it .

Luc i y, t he song of this (enclosed) painting had only one verse repeated with variations, so I could remember it : "Down, down, down, around the town, town, town," sung with a decided American twang to

"down" and " town," But this is the im-

portant part : the song and the paint ing are one - a whole. It ' s not that she sings while she paints: she sings what she paints. Her brush paintings, ana-their songs, of course, are about ~hings, i . e. what kind of objects she 1S representing on paper. But this finger painting was so different because it was all process and the song was about t h at process - almost the whole time, she was painting around and around, as you can see from the final picture . She didn't start singing those words until she began painting around and around; and this was the only painting of seven in which she painted in circles. I took a photo and wi l l share it with you when I get it .

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #17

The ending was perfect : I was about to give her a new paper, which is my sneaky "teacher" way of ending a kid's painting at a point where the end product will look " nice." (As you no doubt know, when most little kids paint a picture until t h ey ' re finished with it, it is usually covered solid in one colour, or, left in boredom at some unfinished-looking stage because they are more intent on the process of painting than the product.) So, just as I was about to stop her process at a point where one could easily路see her "around" painting, she luckily finished it up herself - with a beautiful flourish right across the picture and down, down, down to end at the bottom of the page, as h er song ended . .. A much more expressive, finished painting than I could ever have guided her to do, in my teacherly way which I still find myself indulging in. ... What struck me so, later, after having watched this singing painting of L was that it did not happen until I left her alone. I had been sit t ing w1th her up till then and sat with her again after it, but only when I went away did she start singing - I mean, I was standing watching her, but I was not interrupting her or even there close by where s h e wou l d be drawn to interact with me - so she could get totally involved in her own creative process which obviously is how all artists in any medium, create ...

sections and hire four teachers besides me. My next project will be to propose a mixed-age ( adults & children) New Games program in the early evening . . .. 1 suggest you look at The Cooperative Sports & Games Book: chaI1en~e W1thout Competit10n by Terry Or11ck, pub . by Pantheon Books ...

BOOTLEG MATH - 2 Here's another math game that I and my friends used to play in school when we were about eight or so - a game that the teachers had nothing to do with and may not even have known about ( See GWS #16 . ) Since this had to be done on paper, and took some time, we had to be careful not to get caught doing it.

We would begin with a piece of paper ruled into squares . Since we didn ' t ha v e graph paper ( sometimes called quadrille paper ) , we had to measure and rule these squares ourselves . Usually a grid of 10 x 10 squares was big enough for us, though sometimes, for more elaborate shapes, we would make a bigger one.

Then on our grid we would make a shape (see Fig. 1), by drawing

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TAPE RECORDERS For a long time I've felt that a tape recorder was a wonderful exploring and learning tool for children.

In WHAT DO I DO MONDAY? I talked about some ways of using them, and many parents are using them now . One thing home schooling families or children might do is exchange tapes with each other . I've been looking for a good inexpensive cassette recorder to recommend to families, and in the latest Radio Shack catalog I see one for $30 (less during sales, which are frequent) . Radio Shack is a huge, nation-wide outfit; they have a store in most towns of any size, and the stuff they make has a good reputation. So one of these cassette recorders would probably be a very good buy.

"NEW GAMES" PROGRAMS From Ann Bodine (NJ) : . . . GWS readers might be interested in the two and three day training workshops offered by the New Games Foundation (PO Box 7901, San Francisco CA 94120; newsletter $5/yr) throughout the US. I ' ll be attending one in October .

Some time ago I decided to try to get involved with the Recreation Dept. and library of my town in the way most people get involved with PTA's. I figured I might be able to influence them to offer programs that would meet some of the needs of unschooled children . . . . The Rec. Dept . not only decided to institute a week ly program of Cooperative Games, but hired me to run it. GWS readers who feel their own Rec. Dept. puts too much emphasis on competitive games might try the same .

[From a later letter : ] The New Game "course " I talked the rec. dept. into letting me give is much overenrolled. We've had to add two more

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straight lines from one grid intersection to another, and so on around until our shape was completed . The shape might be a simplified dog, or sailboat, or airplane, or simply a shape. For the "dog" in Fig. 1, we would begin somewhere near the left edge of the grid. Then we would say, "Go up two squares and two squares over to the right." That would give us our second point. Then we'd say, "Go down two squares and two squares over to the right." That would give our third point. Then, "Four squares o ver to the right," and so on until the " dog" was finished.

Then came the exciting part of the game. Again we would draw a 10 x 10 grid, but this time with the squares much bigger or smaller than in the first one. On this new grid we would make a shape, following exactly the same steps we had taken to make o ur first shape, beginning with our s tarting po int, then going up tw o squares and two over to the right, and so on until the shape was comp leted. Then we would compare this new drawing with our first drawing.

We were always absolutely astonished t o find that our new shape looked exactly like the first one, only a different size. It seemed like a miracle. We did it over and over again, and every time were just as surprised and delighted to find that our second shape was just like our first one, only smaller, or bigger.

Since we were "spozed" to be working on regular arithmetic, and had to keep our pictures hidden, we couldn't get a great variation in size . But if the teachers had known about this game, and had wanted to encourage it, we might have been able to copy a shape from little teeny squares to great big ones, even on a

12 sheet of pape r b i g e n o u g h t o cover a large part of a wal l . Tha t wou ld have been exciti n g.

I don ' t remember tha t a n yone ever thought of n u mberi n g t he s qua r es along the bottom and up the lef t side of our grids, as i n Fig. 2 , or of

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Me a n wh ile, lit tl e children will probably be interested in carbon pap er a n d wh a t t h ey can do with it .

But I'd sugges t t h at before giving them sto r e bou ght carbon paper to wor k with , you let them make their own. I t h ink t h ey ' ll find it more exci t ing .

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I 1"' " ~ 6 7 8 ~ 10 using these numbe r s to locate eac h one of the points on our drawing .

This too would have been exciting for us, t h e idea tha t you could make a shape and then te l l someone else h ow to make a shape jus t like yours by giving him nothing bu t a bun c h of num bers. That would have seemed another miracle. It would also have led us into t h e basic idea of analytic geometry, graphs of equations, and other interesting ideas that students usually don't meet until late in h igh sch ool - too late, wh e n all but a few of them have learned to hate and fear math .

It would also have led easily into the idea of scale drawings, in which a certain distance on the drawing stands for a certain distance in real life: 1 inc h = 1 foot, or 1 inc h = 100 miles, etc . From t h ere we migh t have gone to architectural plans - I have always thought that many children, once they understood wh at a plan was, would be interested in the project of making a plan of their own room, or house.

Some families might find it interesting to tryout some of t h ese ideas. You can get graph paper of different sizes in stationery stores.

For really big copies of shapes you will have to make your own . As always, if you and your children try out any of these ideas, let us know what happens.

MIRACLE COPIES Someching e lse we used to do a t school, hidden behind our books, was to make our own "carbon paper " (we

didn't know the real thing existed) by scribbling in pencil on a piece of paper until it was solid black. Then we'd turn it over and use it to make copies of things. We ' d put a clean piece of paper on top, then our homemade carbon paper, then another clean piece of paper. Then we'd draw or write something on the top sheet, pressing down hard on the pencil.

Then we ' d look at the bottom sheet, and there would be a rather faint copy of whatever we had written or drawn. A miracle' We'd compare the two carefully, and no doubt about it, they would be exactly the same .

I suspect that young children would still be fascinated by the idea of exact copies, two things looking exactly alike, and would be interested in the various ways in which we make exact copies of things . I ' ve read about a very inexpensive way of duplicating - spirit hectograph y? involving a flat tray of some k i nd of gelatin. Could probably be done in a kitchen. If any readers know about that, please let me know .

A r eader wri t es, " ... 1 met a very u nus u al teache r who is teaching math right now to our CETA group. She has been h aving trouble getting the subject across particularly to one older fellow but all of us get hung u p at times . I showed her your GWS article about math [ " On Counting, " GWS #11 and later that afternoon I found h er using that principle of ty i ng a number to something and having much more success .. . "

THOSE EASY TABLES Here ' s an approach to the multiplication tables that will make them easier and more fun to kn ow , that will make them stick better in memory, that will give something to fall back on wh en memory is not sure, and t h at will give some idea how numbers work, and the beauty and harmony in the patterns they make .

I ' m not saying that children (or adults) should know the multiplication tabres:-or that their lives will be ruined if they don't . Many happy and successful adults couldn't recite the tables to save themselves . But it ' s handy to know the tables, and if we approach them right - they are easy to know, and the patterns they make will be exciting for children to discover. So we might as well make friends with them.

Please note that I said "know " the tables, not "learn" the tables.

The best way to know them is not to sit down and try to memorize mem, one at a time, like words in some strange language, but to become familiar with them, to see how they work, and to use them . After a while we will find that we know them without ever having consciously learned them - just as we know many thousands of words in our native language, without ever having "learned" any of them.

We begin with a 10 x 10 grid, ten rows of squares, ten squares in each row . Number the rows 1 to 10 down the side, and columns 1 to 10 across the top. Every square in the grid will be in a numbered row and a numbered column.

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To fill out the grid you put in each square the product of the number of the row it is in, and the number of the column. The drawing shows the basic grid with a few of these products filled in. For the square in th e 2 row and the 3 column, the number we want to put inside is the product 2 x 3, or 6. In the square in the 4 row and the 5 column, we want the

product 4 x 5, or 20. And so on. If you yourself don't feel at home with the tables, I ' d suggest you fill in an entire grid yourself, taking as muc h time as you want . Use a calculator i f you like.

On e way to start children working on tables is to start out with an empty grid and have them slowly fill it in. Give them plenty of time to do this - weeks or even months, if need be . The grid might be posted in some convenient place - refrigerator door, etc. - so that as c h ildren figure out a new product they can put it in its proper square. But there's no rush .

What will probably happen is what we hope will happen - the children will probably first fill in the 1 and 2 rows and columns, and then the 5 rows and columns, and the 10 rows and columns. They will think of these products as being "easy ." Perfect' When they think of a product as being easy they already know it, probably so securely that they will never forget it.

Suppose, in filling out these squares, a child makes a mistake .

Please don't correct it; leave it alone. As the child gets more familiar with the tables and the patterns they make, s/he will see that one of the numbers looks wrong, doesn't seem to fit, causes contradictions - just as children teaching themselves to read see these kinds of contradic tions when they read a word wrong.

What is far more important than knowing the tables as such is that children should feel that numbers behave in orderly and sensible ways . Children who feel this, when they do make a mistake, can usually say, " Wait a minute, that doesn ' t make sense," and find and correct the mistake.

At any rate, at some point the child will put all the products in the grid . If the grid is on a door or in some visible place, filling in the last square will be quite excit ing.

There might even be a little ceremony.

Of course, if there is a calculat o r around and the child knows how to use it, s/he will be be able to fill in the grid very quickly by using the calculator. Fin e . Even in filling out the grid this way the child will begin to notice some of the patterns.

And the game will t h en become, how much of the grid can I fill out without using the calculator. Please d o n't ask "How much can you remember?" Most of what children know, they don't "remember, " that is, they aren't conscious of remembering, and if we s tart them worrying about what they can remember and what they can't, we will simply make more and more of th ei r knowledge unavailable to them.

Without wanting to turn th ese suggestions into exact rules, I'd suggest that when the first grid has been filled out, correctly or incorrectly, you take it down from its public place and put up a new blank grid. The child will fill this out more qUickly th an it did the first one . More products will seem easy than the first time. If mi stakes were made the first time, some or all of them will be noticed and corrected.

But even if the same mistake keeps turning up, don't worry. Sooner or later the child will catch a nd correct .i t.

Some variations of the gridfilling game. (1) When children can fill in an entire grid in, say, less than five minutes, let them do it against the clock and see how long it takes. Next time, see if they can do it a little faster - children like

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #17

13 breaking their own "records." (2) See how many products the child can fill in in a given time, say one or two minutes. The child will stay away from the "hard" products, will race through the products that are already easy, and will spend most time thinking about those products that used to be hard and that are now beginning to be easy. One day a child will have to think a few seconds to figure out that 5 x 6 ~ 30. A few days later, the child will know it, that product will have become easy, and it will move to other semi-hard products, which will in their turn become easy, until one day all are easy. (3) Try filling out the-grid backwards, i . e. beginning with the lower right hand corner, going up each column and left along each row. Children doing this will see new patterns they hadn't noticed - as you go up the 9's column the last digit goes up 1 each time, and so on . (4) Make a grid with the columns and rows numbered randomly, and see how long it takes to fill that out. (This is harder.)

More about these patterns in the next issue.

TUTOR IN THE TROPICS A friend and GWS reader, presently a staff member of the New Alchemists, told us that he has been invited by a wealthy family on a tropical island to tutor their twelve year old son for the next year or two . He asked me about curriculum materials.

I wrote: ... Nice to get your letter with the exciting news. I had heard of those islands - from all I hear, very beautiful. Many exotic life forms, plants, birds, etc. not found elsewhere, a fascinating ecological niche that would be particularly interesting to a New Alchemist .

Since this young person lives in one of the most unusual biological places in the world, it would be foolish not to make that habitat and its special life forms a central part of your study. You should make it an important part of your business to learn as much as you can about this place, and have him learn with you.

I think it would be a very good idea to write t his boy a letter, quite a long one, telling him something about yourself, your work, your interests, and your particular interests in the islands, and ask him to write you back telling you something about himself and his life and interests . . . . The point is that you have as much to learn about this boy's world as he has to learn about yours.

In teaching you, he will learn a great deal himself .

Given your interest in worms, and by extension, other critters that feed on wastes, you might make an inventory of local creatures that could perform such a function.

You should tell this boy something of the work of the New Alchem ists. Part of your work should be conSidering what a New Alchemist project on the islands might do. From their location I would guess that they are very windy, and also, that they have to pay a lot for electricity. Maybe you could do a study of wind-power possibility on the islands .

I know that some of the island people are very worried about preser ving the natural beauty, flora, fauna, etc. against the invasions of tourism . ... You might make it a part of your work there to get to know

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #17

some of these people and find out what they are doing. The boy could be your associate in this.

The thread that is running all through these suggestions of mine is that this boy will learn best and most if his learning grows out of being associated with you in serious adult work, not just school stuff. In arr-or-tnese projects that I have suggested there is plenty of mathematics, physics, etc., etc. But it will be better if it is all rooted in some kind of serious reality.

I don't know where to find any books on this. You ought to be writing a book. You are going to have a unique experience, and you should write about it. Maybe this could be another project that the boy and you could work on jointly - some sort of mutual description of your work together. . .

CORRESPONDENTS WANTED Fellowshi~, the monthly magazine of the Fellows ip of Reconciliation (523 N Broadway, Nyack NY 10960; 80¢, $8/yr.), regularly lists names of people in prison who are looking for people to correspond with. Some home schooling children or families might want to do this. Here are listings from a recent issue; for more names, see Fellowship.

Lonely inmate looking for meaningful relationship with someone through correspondence. I am active in the inmate's juvenile delinquent program, work with senior citizens and take classes toward a B.A. degree. Please write Frederic Jennings, 71 A 0441, Drawer B, Stormville NY 12582 .

Prisoner who lost his family in a fire asks for sincere and kind correspondent who might become a friend .

Michael Jackson, 35905-118 Box 1000, Lewisburg PA 17837.

Black prisoner, 29, seeks new friendships with sincere persons seeking the same . Male, female, black or white, over 21. Please write to Fred Franklin, Box 45699, #151-953, Lucasville OH 45699.

Black prisoner, 26, serving a life sentence, is lonely and seeks correspondence . Loves sports, music,

children, and things of an educational nature. Please help me, for I strive to stay in reality and gain knowledge through pen pals. Raymond Hamilton 69501, Box 500, Barracks #16, Grady AR 71644 .

DRIVING From an article by Becky Cramer in Manas: ... I've found that one great unsettling factor in our lives is the need to drive our children everywhere. How can they feel the world responds to them in predictable ways while being chauffeured to all the important places in their lives, unable when small even to see out along the way? I try to at least point out land marks, draw picture maps of the route, even discuss the operation of the car, to demystify the very physical task of getting us to where we are going . Walking is so much better, seeing clearly what you pass, sensing the energy needed to cover the distance, remembering the route afterward and happily anticipating it when you do it again - and joyfully finding that all those things you passed

are there again, right where you thought they would be' ..

CHILDREN IN CHURCH From Barbara Lafferty (NJ): ... We have been attending the Sacred Heart Church in Camden, which actually welcomes children at Mass and recognizes how important and necessary they are. Kids aren't looked upon as a distraction but a welcome and encouraged addition. It's beautiful' Last Sunday our 4, 5, and 10 year olds decided that they wanted t o sit in t he front row right next to the center aisle - we sat about seven rows back . I wish you could have seen their attentiveness even though the temperature was 100 0 as the Church has no air conditioning. The Saturday before that, we attended the Walt Whitman International Poetry Center's Annual Festival - beautiful readings

by Daniel Berrigan - and there was a husband/wife team of puppeteers there. The kids had a tremendous time playing in the park with them. During Mass the puppeteers came in and sat directly across the aisle from our kids. Needless to say, they were really thrilled. After Mass we always gather in the church basement and have coffee or juice and cake. They were with the puppeteers the entire time. As learning cannot be separated from living, we want our kids to know that God cannot be separated from everyday living - not just a Sunday thing ...

A RELIGIOUS HOME-SCHOOL The Louisville, KY, Times, 6/6/80: . .. School starts early and quietly in the Thiels' simple cabin in south-central Kentucky near Bowling Green . . . . The day begins with meditation, spiritual chants, and scripture readings . The family sings thanksgiving for the day. Then Shanti Thiel, the lone full-time student, begins her math lesson . Even before breakfast, she is learning decimals and toiling over fractions.

Her teacher, her mother Nancy Thiel, is nearby. Throughout the morning, she will guide her pupil in history, reading, and grammar, social studies, geography, and science.

There are short breaks for laughter or meditation.

But Mrs. Thiel follows a careful curriculum. She and her husband, Raymond, depend on their own knowledge, the family's library of several thousand books, a new set of encyclopedias, and dozens of textbooks.

Appare n tly they're doing something right. Shanti, 9 years old, should be i n the fourth grade. But her skills, according to tests given by the Bowling Green school system, are far above her age group. Her skills compare favorably with those of an eighth grader in the third month of school.

The Kentucky Department of Education says she and her parents are breaking th e law . Now the matter is in court, and a decision is expected soon. .. . "We have our own private school," says Thiel. "It's a parochial schoo l ... like the Catholics'.

But it's little." Shanti is the only full-time student, although a younger brother receives some instruction .

Their religion is not a known

14 quantity like Catholicism. The Thiels have a self-styled religion t h ey call Manchu Buddhism, wh ich t h ey have practiced for 10 years. It is a combination of Hindu, Zen Buddhism, and Christian beliefs. They believe in the power of meditation to direct their lives. They practice the breathing and stretching exercises of yoga .

They have taken vows of poverty. They are pacifists. Th ey do not eat meat .

They do not smoke, drink alcohol or caffeine beverages. They do not own a television because t h ey believe it glorifies greed, violence, and sex abuse .

Their spiritual beliefs are woven into their day. Meditation for a Thiel child begins early. Shanti began meditating wh en s h e was 4 .

And their religion, likewise, is woven throughout the Manchu Buddhist School . . .. In history class, for example, war heroes are not glorified, Thiel says. Instead, Shanti studies about people like Ma h atma Gand h i, Martin Luther King Jr, and Mot h er Teresa . Math word prob l ems migh t be taken from the Bible . And through the day there are periods of meditation, chanting, and scripture reading.

Raymond and Nancy Thiel plan the same daily pattern for their two boys, Rahman, 4, and Bodhi, 6 months .

"We ' re trying to live a life that mixes religious va l ues with education, " says Thiel . "We're conscien-

tiously opposed to public schools ...

There is no alternative to teaching her at home . " Thiel told Judge Gordon Johnson at a hearing April 11, "No public school or private sectarian Christian schools are capable of nurturing Sh anti's integrated religious academic education in harmony with our religious beliefs. These are our children ' s formative years, in which a strong religious base must be established from which they can then relate to the world with a religious understanding not commonly found in this culture. " The Thiels are basing their case on the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution, which guarantees religious freedom, and on the Fifth Section of the State of Kentucky Constitution ...

DEALING FROM STRENGTH A reader writes : .. . 1 was able to enroll my kids in a private school which provides a completely individualized educational plan for each child, but before c h oosing an alternative to the public school I did many things.

I began by seeing how many concessions I could get from public school permitting MY control over what my youngest child learned. These were informal concessions granted by teachers and supervisors . I got quite a few of them . All concessions were Withdrawn, however, when I tried to extend them to my older girl also.

I watched the school district closely and found out what they are doing that violates state law or board policy . I made them obey the law on one issue, just to show them that I could see an issue t h rough to victory and make change happen. Th e fact that the issue I chose didn't really directly concern me or my kids at all established me as a unpredictable maniac . I attended every school board meeting for a year, taping all meetings and saying very little.

I used t h e Freedom of Information law to get copies of applica-

( 2) testing by an educational examintions for funding for Title I and er - $$, and (3) a gifted IEP which I Special Ed. I compared what they said t h ey woul d do with the money to what approved of (due process requirement), $$$. Any time my children they actually put on as a program. should return to the public school I I found out what the weakest spots in the school's educational pro- would simply continue where I left grams were. I compared them with what off in the chain of appeals, seeking the latest experts are saying is the answers to these issues. Would the school district want to risk having a way rr-snould be done .

I documented all the ways in judge decide for them? ... Is any which t h e school was failing my child- school district willing to risk havren. I determined what special indiing to provide a special program they vidualized needs my children had, and don ' t want to provide, or facing a what problems they had that the lawsuit to settle an issue, or exposchool was not helping to sol v e. I sure of their illegal dealings? cited state and federal law and When parents carry an issue prop school policy that said the school erly through the chain of appeals should be meeting these needs and established by the school and departproblems. ment of education, this is referred I put this all together in writo in court as exhausting administra ting. I could show that I knew what tive remedies. I think it is importhe educational needs of my children tant for parents to know that judges were, and that the school was not have thrown cases back into the laps meeting those needs; not fulfilling of local and state boards of educaits legal obligations. tion for failure to exhaust adminisI prepared my specific requests trative remedies, so parents should concerning changes I believed were regard their confrontations with adnecessary for my children ' s education ministrators as important and worthy and started taking these requests up of good record-keeping. One example: t h e succession of appeals. I told them every step of the way that I was Me: In fourteen weeks of school prepared to go from teacher to princimy daughter did not learn one pal to superintendent to school board Single new thing in any subject . to state board, and even to court, beSuperintendent: I'll take excepcause I meant business . Each step of tion to that. Anytime your daughter the way I kept tape-recorded records is in school, we ' re teaching her of conferences, copies of corresponsomething . dence, and avoided phone calls.

Me: Not anything she doesn't It helps to know the due process already know. procedures associated with state and Supt: THAT'S BESIDE THE POINT' federal special ed laws and developAnytime she's THERE we're teaching ment of IEPs (Individualized Educaher SOMETHING. tional Plans) . Any state department My husband: Yeah. How to sit of education will have them in wriquietly . ting .

Here I must stop to explain . The I think the superintendent meant schools claim the ability and the that if my daughter is there and practically exclusive RIGHT to cure teacher is there, then everybody had all educational ills, but they are fulfilled the legal requirement. often reluctant to provide an approThat's like if we had compulsory TV priate program. Yet, the school has viewing, it wouldn't matter that the not FAILED to provide an appropriate program was the 15th rerun of Gilliindividualized educational program gan's Island as long as we were watchuntil I have asked for one and they ing and they were putting something have refused. If, for example, the on the screen. parents of a kindergartener who is The one indicator I had of my reading at fifth grade level ask the effectiveness was tape-recorded at a school to have their educational exam- noon luncheon of the school board: iner test the child for giftedness, and the school refuses to do this, Chairman: I wish I knew that the fact of the refusal could be very much law . important .

Board member who is an attorney: All of my requests were refused ( laughing) So do I' Well, she wrote as far as appeal to the supe rintena damn good brief; better than most dent . The next appeal would have lawyers, as a matter of fact . I put "gone public" - school board meetings it in my briefcase so I could use get good news coverage . I was and it on FOr. Oh, she can do a good still am prepared to continue up the job. I'm TIRED of her' chain of appeals, and I think we were at the point when the school would Anybody can find the law in have suffered some public embarrasstheir public library, courthouse libment, but I had become absolutely con- rary, or nearest university law libfident that the most positive step I rary. Every school district has a polcould take would be to choo s e an alicy manual, school board minutes of ternative to public school for my meetings, etc, all required by law to children. My accomplishment was that be open to public inspection .

I knew just exactly what I was getIt seems this year a child only ting my kids out of, and I was very attended school 23 days. The princiconfident in the rightness of getting pal wanted to retain the child (not them out . let him go on the next grade). The I was fortunate to find an accep- parents objected. The school checked table private school arrangement, but with the attorney general. He said what if I hadn't? What if I had no they could not legally retain the choice but to unschool and risk prose- child simply because of poor attencution and possible forced return of dance . The child was allowed to go on my kids to public school? In that to the next grade . r will try to find case, I would have taken the risk, be- out the legal reasoning on this. cause I believe the school district How to find out how many compulwould have to risk some loss themsory attendance violators have been selves. I was prepared to demand referred to the county prosecuting ( 1) exercise of my parental right to attorney's office: Go there and exexempt my children from objectionable plain that the school had threatened curriculum (in this case, their demon- to refer you. Secretary will haul out strably rotten reading program), the stack of referrals and shuffle

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #17

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15 through. While she shuff l es, you count . . .

G.E.D. IN PA. More from the mot h er in PAc . .. The Penna . Code, Title 22, " Education, " Chapte r 5, "General Curriculum Requirements, " Section 5.81, "Requirements for seconda r y school diplomas, " states: The Commonwealth secondary school diploma may be issued to an applicant who is a resident of this Commonwealth and who meets the fol lowing requirements: (1) a passing score as determined by t h e Department on the high school level Tests of General Educational Development [GED]; or (2) presentation of evidence of full matriculation and the satisfactory completion of a minimum of one full year or 30 semeste r h ours in an accredited college.

Looking carefully at (1), and looking at bookstores in the area, we found there are preparatory booklets available to prime oneself on the GED tests .

My oldest son will be in 7th grade next year, so since my teaching certificate covers only K-6, I will be at the mercy of the superintendent of schools in our areas, as to wheth er I can teach him here again next year .

Section 5 . 82, " Restrictions," says : " The Department will not issue a diploma until afte r the class of which t h e applicant was a member h as been graduated. " In other words, the only restriction is that my son wou l d not have a diploma in hand until his grade reached gradua ti on. (I would insist on a letter or certificate of some kind to show that he passed the test.)

There is no restriction on age [Ed - this is not true in all states]. After passing the test, there will legally be no more schooling required, and my son will be able to pursue education the way it should be, by living' Along wit h THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO TAKING TESTS, and the GED workbooks at our local bookstore, we will begin this summer teaching him all the basics for the GED test . When he is ready, we will request a test for him.

This is not the ideal situation for learning, and I love the reports in GWS about those families who have dropped out and are really letting their little ones experience life and learning as it should be .

But our consciences won ' t allow us to have authorities breathing down our necks because of this point or that . We want out . All t h e way free, clear, ana-legal, and with the law and the opposition to unschooling right now, we feel t h is is one way to get through it . .. . If our oldest son passes, we will diligently work with our younger son (5th grade) so that by junior high, he will also be ready to be tested ...

PREPARING FOR THE G.E.D. Th e current cata l og of McGrawHill Paperbacks (1121 Ave . of the Americas, New York NY 10020) lists How To Preeare for t h e NEW Hig h ~chool E~u~valency Examination (GED), $5.95. T e book is divided into the

GROWING WITHOUT SC HOOLING #17

five major areas covered by the GED Exam, and includes a pre-test and a post-test .

McGraw-Hill also publishes five GED in-depth study books, each with many hundreds of questions, and eac h wit h its own pre- and post-test .

These are Th e Mathematics Test, The Writing Skills Test, the Reading-Skills Test, The Social Stud~es Test, ano-the Science Test, each $4.95.

Home schoo l ing parents might find these useful in many ways. They could use t h em to reassure themselves, and if need be the local schools , or perhaps even a college, that their children were learning or had learned enough of the material ordinarily covered in high school. If these children were younger than most high school seniors, but could still easily pass these sample tests, this would be a convincing argument for letting them l earn at home . And if the sc h ools pushed matters to the courts, few judges would hold that these c h ildren were being " neglected "

or "abused. "

If you use any of these books, either as a way of feeling more secure or of getting the schools to leave you alone, please let us know the results. I would particularly like to know whether any people who used these books and later actually took the GED Exam felt that these bOOks prepared them well for it. And I would also like to know whether home schooled children of less than high school age, say 10-12 years old, found these books or tests easy or difficult .

VA. STATEMENTS From David and Carol Kent ("Owning a Press, " GWS #15): .. . Re : the Sept. 16th Subcommittee hearing on home schooling legislation in Virginia [see " Va . Legislative Study," GWS #16 . ] ... We are sending you copies of our statements, which we are sending directly to each of the six subcommittee members, as well as to home schoolers in Virginia .. .

[Carol's statement : ] I am a resident of t h e State of Virginia and a registered voter . I wish to record my opinion in favor of the compulsory school attendance law presently in force in the State of Virginia. The present attitude of the Virginia government with respect to alternative education is an exemplary one. It enables the parents responsible for the education of children in the State of Virginia to pursue whatever educational avenues they feel will best ensure the superior education of their offspring . The residents of very few states enjoy such a benevolent educational atmosphere.

The following are arguments pre sented for amending the present statute, wh ich I would like to answer .

1 . Parents cannot prepare their children adequately for life in today's complex world. My answer: There are no available statistics or other evidence to show that public schools prepare children for life .

2. Children deprived of such credentials as diplomas and transcripts are unemp l oyable. My answer : Various tests have been devised and are currently available to the publiC which enable anyone to show his or her educational level . Institutions of h igher learn i ng r eadily accept students on the basis of test scores alone in

the absence of previous school records.

3. Home-schooled children make compulsory attendance unenforceable.

My answer: It is anyway . At some time every school district confronts the known incorrigible truant, whom it ultimately ignores in the interest of economy or convenience .

4. Sc h ool districts need high attendance for state aid . My answer: High attendance can only enrich the school system which devises a method of spendin g less money per child the more children are enrolled. The result must be that the largest school systems will provide the least satisfactory education for all but the brightest students.

Newspaper articles concerning the present compulsory school attendance law hearings make clear that the real reason for these hearings is not concern for potent i ally neglected children under the present law, but rather a resentful vendetta on the part of Norfolk school administrators who were frustrated in their attempt to force one tamLl to artLcL ate in pu LC SC 00 e ucation mp aSLS a O ed.] I hope the legislators will realize th a t by writing laws to discourage home schooling and other educational alternatives they will not eradicate this practice, but will merely for c e otherwise law-abiding parents to break the law and deprive them of the expert outside help they might otherwise seek. The present law is uniformly beneficial: it enables the school districts to conscript children n o t otherwise being taught, while Simultaneously sheltering those wh ose parents desire to exercise their right to supervise their children's education. I therefore urge the legislators to decide in favor of continuing the present law. [ David's statement : ] I am a resident of the state of Virginia and a registered voter . As a parent of young children, I present the following statement.

This Joint Subcommittee of the House Education Committee and the Senate Education and Health Committee is charged with preparing a report to be presented to the 1981 General Assembly. At issue is whether Section 22-275 of t h e state Code should be altered so as ~o introduce the subject of "home schooling" into the Code .

A primary question to be asked is this: To whom would such legislation apply? According to an article appearing on pp . 1 and 4 of the July 19, 1980, i s sue of the NewGort News Times-Herald, one of thisubcommLttee ' s " legLslative aide ( s) said, 'the committee would love to hear from (parents now teaching their children at home). We just don't know any. ' " If the Subcommittee knows of no parents in Virginia who are teaching their children at home, then WHY SUCH LEGISLATION ? In fact, there are about one dozen couples in the state who admit they are teaching their children at home. If legislation is passed which is aimed at possibly 25 children in the s tate, that legislation comes perilously close to constituting ad hominem law . [Ed - what the US Constitution calls a "bill of attainder," and specifically forbids. ] Punitive law, as well, if one considers the considerable expense imposed on any or all of the parents of these children by the necessity of challenging such legislation in the courts. Sen. Stanley Walker asks the question, "If everybody started teach-

16 ing their children at home, what would that mean?" A Republican might tell Sena t or Walker that legislation drafted to control a theoretical condition which might or might n ot prove dangerous to social welfare, is supererogatory legislation. There is no damage now being done to society re quiring legislative remedy, by the handful of parents who wish to exer cise their constitutional right to educate their own children.

As I am sure you are aware, in 1965 the Supreme Court stated that " ... the right to educate one's children as one chooses is made app l icable to the States by t h e First and Fourteenth Amendments ." The legal right is clear enough. That any parents at all are prepared to invest so heavily in time and effort to rear their children by themselves, is remarkable . Yet these few do, and the state should not attempt to hinder such parents . . . . It should be apparent that a father or mother who will spend a large part of his or her time with a child, one-to-one, will h ave a better result than the group system of the public school; and I can show, if you wish, that this does happen . It is for this re ason that the Supreme Court noted in 1972 that "this primary role of the parents in the upbringing of their children is now established beyond debate as an endur ing American tradition." ... Delegate Howard Copeland, at the behest of the Norfolk city government and school divisLon, proposed the creation of this Subcommittee, with a view to seeking amendment of Section 22-275. This resulted from a decision handed down in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court of the City of Norfolk in 1979 [Com monwealth of Va. vs. Theo and Daniel Giesy - see GWS #11], in which Judge Martin stated in relation to private schools, "The law provides no guidance - no definition, no delineation of institutional parameters, no pre scription as to faculty, students, curriculum or accreditatio n - nothing whatsoever." Senator Walker says the Subcommittee will seek testimony to see "if there's a l oophole that we ought to look at." Certainly, the Norfolk school division has construed the decision in terms of "loophole " legislative crisis. I call on the Subcommittee to examine the motive behind this absurd and incorrect con struction, which would cause a good deal of harm to the parents in this state who wish to take the responsibility on their own shoulders for educa ting their own children . Members should read the entire decision, in which Judge Martin states further, in relation to private schools, " The legislative wall of silence IS NOT DEEMED TO BE ACCIDENT OR OVERSIGHT, BUT RATHER AN ELOQUENT EXPRESSION OF FORMAL STATE POLICY." It is indeed a credit to earlier legislators of the state of Virginia that Section 22-275 was drafted in such a way as would secure educational responsibilities to those parents who choose not to turn the education of their children over to the state.

I would remind you that Sect ion 22-275.1 spells out three options available to parents: (1) "a public school"; (2) " a private, denominational or parochial sc hool"; (3) "a tutor or teacher of (State Board prescribed) qualifications . " The second option makes quite clear that the educational responsibility can be turned over to a religious body, with no provision given for control of standard or achi evement, in the case of paro-

chial o r denominational schools. To assert that any sort of oversight, or supervision, or qualification, of a " private" school (by elimination, nonsectarian and independent from state control) is intended or implied simply violates the clear sense of this provision, which is to allow two, or four, or a dozen parents to educate their children as they see fit.

I believe the correct historical, legal, and ethical position is clear enough, with regard to private schooling. I believe the Subcommittee is not actively seeking proofs of the ability of " average" parents to bring their children up to be capable and useful members of society. It should be obvious that any parent who cares to make such an effort will not produce a delinquent, asocial, or incompetent citizen as a result.

The Subcommittee's legislative aides have prepared a memorandum which contains a number of options, and I should like to address these options.

1) "Doing nothing." This is precisely the course to follow. I realize that it may be difficult for the members to make this recommendation, but I have explained at length why the tradition of personal freedom and initiative, so strong for many generations in the Old Dominion and which places Virginia in the lead of perhaps all the states, should not be abridged by imposing educational patterns which are foreign to the ways in which many families in the state wish to have their children reared .

2) " Amending state law to define 'home schooling' and setting standards for instruction." This is simply to combine the second and third options of Section 22-275.1. Once more, this imposes a statewide pattern of conformity, deadening the variety of educational options, such as apprenticeship or flexible schedule programs - a pattern "protecting" us from a societal problem which is not there, and bringing an eventual dullness to our citizenry.

3) "Banning home schools supervised by parents"; "Mandating all education in formally defined schools"; "Mandating education for parenttutors, specifying hours and days of school ." I am sorry, but this is not the Kremlin. My wife has her Phi Beta Kappa, also is certified from the University of Heidelberg. I myself have over twenty years of formal education in American schools. Yet neither of us finds the conventional patterns of education desirable for our children, whom we bring up as we see fit. The work by which I support my family I learned entirely in on-the-job selfteaching. My education was not helpful in the slightest, when it came to the practical matter of supporting myself and family . I am frankly not interested in attending any sort of school to learn how to educate groups of children, nor would that help with my own children, for whose welfare my wife and I feel solely responsible.

That they will grow up to be highly valuable members of society will be a by-product of our efforts, and with those efforts the state should in no way interfere.

4) " Requiring local school superintendents to approve study curriculums, or requiring local school systems to test home-schooled children periodically." If you don't mind my drawing the analogy, one would as soon have one's marital relations monitored. The only ultimately valid test of the personal affair of educa-

tion is whether a child becomes a charge on SOCiety. The interests of society can demand no more than that the child does not, and no homeschooled child will ever become such a societal charge. The diploma argument is a fallacious one, and requires no comment. The parental abuse argument is covered by abuse and neglect statutes now in force.

5) "Administrative problems."

Finally, this. If students are withdrawn from the public schools, "home schooling could have a serious budget impact on schools," from the decrease in state aid . Can this argument be a serious one? If there are fewer students in a school, that school needs less state aid to provide the same service per student enrolled.

I realize that I have given the compelling reasons for maintaining the Virginia State Code as it now is with regard to Section 22-275, rather than explaining to you why the "home schooling" of my and other children is so important to us. The freedom we presently enjoy in rearing our child ren ourselves is a very satisfying thing. My wife and I both descend from families who lived in Virginia long before the Revolution, and we are fully aware of and prize the rights and personal privileges secured to us by the Constitution and thoughtful legislators of this state.

It is for that reason that we take most particular interest when a school committee or board from some part of the state attempts to introduce legislation which would in any way and to any degree constrict or abridge any of those hard won rights and privileges. "Home schooling" is our right and our privilege - and, we believe, our responsibility - and we accordingly call on you as members of the Subcommittee to endorse and support the law of the state of Virginia as it now stands.

LETTER TO OFFICIAL An unschooler, after discussing home education with officials of the state Department of Education, wrote to the head of the department, saying in part: ... It seemed from your questions at the meeting that the Department of Education is concerned with fitting Home Schooling into some classification. This would make it easier, apparently, to answer questions such as the ones you raised in your recent memo about finances, graduation requirements, criteria for approval, etc .

Some suggestions for classification were ... (1) consider home schooling as an off-premises extension of the local public school . This would make the schools happy because they could receive state money for the child. (2) Consider these families to be mini-private schools. (3) Create a new category. (4) Consider home schooling to be a viable option and do nothing more. . .. As I mentioned at the meeting, we don ' t want to see the state take any action to classify or categorize us, since this would inevitably mean we would fall under inappropriate rules and regulations. Home schoolers already are classified under the compulsory act. The wording of the compulsory act - stating that a child could receive "equivalent in struction elsewhere than at school" clearly is meant to allow a variety of situations. The act recognizes

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #17

17 that every possibility can't be anticipated and spelled out, and makes allowances for that fact . We are simply "elsewhere ."

This is the only category that is broad enough to cover the many different philosophies and approaches in home schooling, and it doesn't have to be created, it already exists in the law .

We would like to see the department satisfy their curiosity about our activities so that it can decide to leave us alone and then advise the ubl~c schools that the should o t e same. Home sc 00 ers wou like to exercise their right to teach their children without being intimidated or harassed by their school officials, which they too often have to endure now. I'll come back to this point later .

I think that categorizing home schoolers as part of the public school system would be a particularly serious mistake. Home schooling parents choose this alternative because they disagree with public schools on some issues. (The issues vary with each family . ) These differences of opinion would be aggravated by placing home schooling under the jurisdiction of the public schools.

The schools tend to want to set guidelines for home schooling situations. If they were given the authority to do this they would be almost sure to consider some of the following: families must observe public school hours or the public school calendar, must use only approved textbooks or approved correspondence courses, must have a certified teacher do the instruction, must have parent instructors tested to prove competence, welfare workers must pay periodic visits, principals may visit the home "classroom," children must take the standardized tests given to public school children at the end of the year.

These demands have all been made of parents in this state at one time or another, although there is nothing in the law which says the schools can demand any of them . Each of the above represents some aspect of schooling which home schoolers dislike. Requiring any or all of them as conditions for approval would result in many, many court cases . I myself would go to court rather than accept anyone of them. ... Only the firmest, most determined parents have negotiated with their school boards long enough to get approval . Others have been intimidated by the reactions of their school officials and have backed off.

Many times the problems seem to stem from the school officials telling parents flatly that home schooling is illegal, before they check on the facts . When the school attorney tells them that it is legal, they seem to settle on giving the parents a hard time about details, apparently to "save face." This seems to me a shabby situation, when people are bullied out of doing something which it is their legal right to do.

The private school system in this state seems to enjoy the kind of respect for individuality and par ents' rights tha t home schooling parents want. Parents who choose, and can afford, private schools are allowed by the state to put their children in a school with different hours, texts, philosophies, and re quirements than public school . They are allowed to choose schools where there is no testing and there are no certified teachers . A private school

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #17

doesn't have to satisfy any requirements of the state or of the local public schools. It must only satisfy the parent who sends his child there.

So parents are, in effect, already in charge of their children's education when they remove them from public school to put them in a private school of their choice . It seems no different to me to let the parents be totally in charge, with the same freedom from restrictions that the private schools enjoy. If parents are allowed to have uncertified strangers teach their children in this unsupervised (by the state) manner, they should certainly be allowed to do it themselves.

I was surprised to see you list under unanswered questions "What are the legal and constitutional rights of a parent to withdraw a child from school?" It seems to me that this question has been quite firmly answered by many court decisions ... can provide more information about these at another time if you are interested. ... We feel we're an important part of the education picture in this state right now ... and a vital source of information for schools and communities of the future. The Department of Education could do us, and education, a valuable service by acknowledging our contributions and supporting our rights, loud and clear .. .

LIST OF MAGAZINES Mark Satin, author of NEW AGE POLITICS (Delta, 1979), which has good things to say about home schooling and GWS, has sent an announcement that may be of interest to GWS readers who are involved with organizations, publications, etc: . .. 1 have prepared a mailing list of more than 750 alternative, New Age, citizen, and transformationoriented periodicals . .. Each address is being checked with each periodical . I will be selling this list on self-sticking address labels, in zip code order, for $35. Checks to Mark Satin, P.O . Box 3242, Winchester VA 22601.

GWS IN BOOKSTORES Until now we have not tried to do anything about having single copies of GWS sold in bookstores and newsstands . As much as I liked GWS, I didn't think that many people would be willing to buy it at the cover price we would have to charge in order to be fair to our subcribers $2 an issue now, more after the end of the year.

But as more and more interesting material has come in about home - based education (maybe we should say "lifebased education") the magazine has grown big enough so that I think at least some bookstores and newsstands might be willing to carry it at the above prices. Since issue #15, GWS has had 20 pages, or about 36,000 words, half the size of most books now sold for $10 in cloth and $5 in quality paperback. And it looks as if later issues will be even bigger.

In short, I think GWS has become large enough so that at least a certain number of bookstores, newsstands, health food stores, etc. may be willing to carry it, and able to sell it. We would sell copies to bookstores, etc. at half price, paid in

advance.

If you know of any bookstores, newsstands, health food stores, etc., i n your area that you think might be willing to carry GWS, would you show them some of our recent issues (from #15 on) and ask them. This might prove to be a great help to us.

Thanks so much, and please let us know what kind of response you get.

ON-DEMAND BOOKS There are many books that I like and believe in very much and think that many of our readers will find interesting and helpful. Most of these we simply add to our list, hoping (as usually happens) that enough readers will find them worth buying to make it worth our while to stock them.

But there are some books that, because of their cost, or slightly unusual subject, we don't quite dare add to our regular list unless and until we know that at least a certain number of readers want to buy them .

We don't want to get stuck with quantities of books that no one wants.

We are going to call these OnDemand Books, and from now on, along with our reviews of books that we have added t o our list, we will also review some on-demand books. If you would like to buy one or more of these from us, let us know. If enough people tell us they want to buy a g i ven book, we will add it to our l i st and announce that in the next GWS. If you are particularly eager to get one of these books, and would like to know as soon as it becomes available, please send us a selfaddressed return postcard saying "(Name of Book ] is now available for order." If we add the book to our list, we will mail your card as soon as the books arrive, and you can send in your order right away. Please send a separate return card for each book you want to know about. And please don't send any money until we say that the book is available.

Here is our first on-demand book: THE TOOTHPASTE MILLIONAIRE, by Jean Merr~ll (89 pages, $7.25 + post) . This delightful story is in many ways exactly the kind of book I have hoped to find. First of all, it is set in a modern city. Most children's books I have read with a background of "real life" I have not liked much. They are real enough, but there is nothing in them but reality - kids worrying about being fat, being timid, being popular in school, etc. Many ch i ldren apparently like them - they sell well, anyway - but I can't get excited about them. There is nothing in them of hope or vision or romance or exciting possiblities.

There are plenty of people to "identify with," but none to admire. Not so THE TOOTHPASTE MILLIONAIRE. Like NATIONAL VELVET, this is a modern fairy tale - without the fairies. We want to believe, and (while we're reading, at least) do believe that it might really happen.

In the second place, this book is in large part about the economics of financing, starting, running, and expanding a small business. It is full of useful information - what many economic terms mean, what kinds of problems business people have to solve, what sort of ethical questions they have to deal with. The book not only answers a lot of little questions, it raises some big ones.

18 The teller of the story, and one of the two central figures, is Kate MacKinstrey, about twelve. Her family has just moved from the Connecticut suburbs to East Cleveland. There she meets Rufus Mayflower, also twelve, black, energetic, resourceful, and competent, the hero of the book - and a very likeable and believable one.

One day Rufus refuses to pay 79¢ for a tube of toothpaste which, he figures, could only have cost a penny or two to make. He gets the idea of making toothpaste himself and selling it at a fairer price. And so the story begins.

Many children's books are written these days to preach various kinds of sermons about equality between races, sexes, etc. Most of the ones I have seen, jud~ed as books (which is what counts, are terrible.

This book has some of those sermons , but the story is so well told, and the people and their talk so lifelike and lively, that we don't mind.

In fact, we hardly notice - the story sweeps us along. It really is great fun, and I think GWS readers, young and old, will enjoy it as much as I do. I certainly am going to look into Jean Merrill's other books - if they are anything like this, we have many treats in store.

DRA WING BOOK DRAWING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BRAIN, by Betty Edwards ($8 . 00 + post). When I was about six or seven I used to draw yachts and ocean liners with huge funnels and hundreds of tiny portholes, but from the age of eight on I never drew any more or thought I could. Until I read this book, I thought (like many people) that to be able to draw things, and above all people, so that they looked real, was a mysterious talent that a few were born with and that the rest of us did not have and never could get. People who could draw well seemed to me almost superhuman. In this book Betty Edwards, who teaches drawing at Cal. State U. at Long Beach, completely convinces me tha t anyone who will spend a little time and thought on it can learn in a couple of months to draw well, Including life l~ke portraits. Not only does s he convince me that it can be done, but she shows how to do it . She also shows some absolutely astonishing before/after drawings done by her students, who began drawing even less well than I do and were able in a month or two to draw portraits that look like the work of skilled artists .

Over the years I have looked at many books about how to learn to draw, hoping to find one that would explain the mystery . None of them gave me the slightest feeling that I could learn to draw well, no matter how much time I spent on it . This book does, because it explains, in a way that I know to be true, why most of us can't or don ' t draw we~ and then tells us how we can get past those obstacles.

Perhaps the best way to state the central point of this remarkable book is by quoting something from the delightful chapter on children's drawing: Say that a ten-year-old wants to draw a picture of a cube, perhaps a three-dimensional block of wood .

Wanting the drawing to look "real," the child tries to draw the cube from an angle that shows two or three planes - not just a straigh t-

on side view that would show only a single plane, and thus would not reveal the true shape of the cube .

To do this, the child must draw the oddly angled s h apes just as they appear - that is, just like the image thaC falls on the retina of the perceiving eye. Those shares are not square . In fact, the chi d must suppress knowin~ that the cube is square and draw s apes that are " funny." The drawn cube will look like a cube In1 y if it is comprised of oddly ang e shapes. Put another way, the child must draw unsguare shapes to draw a square cube. The child must accept this paradox, this illogical process, which conflicts with verbal, conceptual knowledge. (Perhaps this is one meaning of Picasso ' s statement that "Painting is a lie that tells the truth.")

If verbal knowledge of the cube's real shape overwhelms the student's purely visual perception, "incorrect" drawing results ... Knowing that cubes have square corners, students usually start a drawing of a cube with a square corner. Knowing that a cube rests on a flat surface, students draw straight lines across the bottom. Their errors compound themselves as the drawing proceeds, a n d the students become more and more confused . (Ed. - she shows some vivid examples of students' failure to draw a cube.) ...

On the basis of "incorrect" drawings such as the cube drawings, students may decide that they "can't draw." But they can draw .. . The dilemma is that previously stored knowledge - which is useful in other contexts - prevents their seeing the thing-as-it-is, right there in front of their eyes .

This is the heart of the book.

We know so much about how things are shaped, how they "ought" to look, that we cannot see how they are actually shaped as they appear before us.

We draw what Ms . Edwards calls "symbolic " shapes, that we have stored in our minds, just as children draw their " knowledge" of how cubes are shaped. This stored symbolic knowledge is what Ms . Edwards and many others now call Left-Brain knowledge.

What this book teaches us is how to get that knowledge out of the way, so that we can see what is there and draw what we see, and it is wonderfully ingenious and effective at doing this. I have done a few of the exercises in the book; they are fun to do, and they work.

One trick is to draw something, looking only at the object you are drawing, keeping the page on which you are drawing well out of sight.

Another trick is to copy a drawing upside down (which is how forgers copy signatures); copying an upside-down drawing, in which nothing looks "real," we cannot use symbolic knowledge, but must copy the shapes as we see them . And these are only a few of many useful tricks and tips.

This seems to me a most fascinating and important book. Learning to draw well is something that many children, alone or with their parents, would find very interesting and exciting to learn to do, and that might help them in many ways. Many years ago, in HOW CHILDREN LEARN, I wrote about why I thought art, and in particular realistic art, was an important tool with which children could look at, explore, and understand the world, and I feel this even more strongly now. One of the great plagues of our time, not just in our

schools but in every part of our society, is over-abstraction. What we think we know about reality becomes a wall between us and that reality, so that we no longer see it fu lly and truthfully, and this can cause us to make some very serious mistakes.

But, long-run benefits aside, drawing is exciting and satisfying for its own sake - one more source of joy in life and the world. For many people, young and old, this book can be the key that unlocks a great treasure.

BOOKS FOR YOUNG CHILDREN A BABY SISTER FOR FRANCES by Russell Hoban ($1.75 + post). Frances, the little badger, thinks that her baby sister Gloria is getting altogether too much attention, and that no one cares about her any more . What she does about it, and how she finds out that she is missed and wanted, make the story of this book. Wonderful badger illustrations.

BREAD AND JAM FOR FRANCES by Russell Hoban ($1.35 + post). One day Frances makes up a song (which she likes to do) about why she does not like her breakfast eggs, and wanesnothing to eat at every meal but bread and jam. Her loving and sensible parents do not scold or fuss, but giv her bread and jam - at ever~ mea . Frances thinks this is won erful - for a while. Another good (and true-to-life) story in this delightful series, with illustrations to match.

1

THE BEAR'S TOOTHACHE by David McPhail ($2.25 + post). A small boy wakes up in the middle of the night to find a huge bear with a terrible toothache outside his bedroom window.

He tries to cure this toothache in several ways before he hits on a plan that works. Very funny illustrations by the author: I particularly like the expression on the faces of boy and bear after they knock the boy's night lamp over.

THE TRAIN by David McPhail ($2 .00 + post). A little boy loves trains more than anything else in the world, so much so that he wears an engineer's hat all the time. One evening, as he is repairing an engine which his baby brother has accidentally broken, it becomes time for bed.

His parents tuck him in his bunk, with his engineer's hqt still on, and there he has a wonderful dream. More lovely illustrations by the author, who catches the spiriC of little children about as well as anyone know.

MADELINE by Louis Bemelmans ($2. 45 + post). The story, told in rhyme, of a little orphan girl who lives in Paris with eleven other little girls in an orphanage run by a nice old nun, Miss Claudel. One night Madeline wakes up crying, feeling very sick. They rush her to the hospital in an ambulance, and the book tells about her further adventures there. This is the first in a series of Madeline books (all illustrated by the author in ink and water color in his vivid and dashing style), the only books left in print of the many written by one of the best and most famous writers and illustrators of the 30's and 40's. (His others are well worth looking up in the library.)

WHAT DO PEOPLE DO ALL DAY? by

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #11

19 Richard Scarry ($4.50 + post). One of my favorite Scarry books - it not only gives children a lot of useful words, but gives them a lot of very interesting information about the work that many people do and the ways in which many things are made or used. In one of the first stories, "Building A House," we see workers using a steam shovel to dig a hol e for the foundation of a new house; masons building the foundation and a chimney; carpenters framing the house; plumbers putting in all the piping; electricians wiring the house and roofers putting on the roof; painters painting; appliances going in, etc . Other chapters: Mailing A Letter; Firemen To The Rescue; A Visit To The Hospital; The Train Trip; Wood And How We Use It; Building A New Road; A Voyage On A Ship; and so on. In all these there is an astonishing amount of information, enough to answer many children's questions and lead to many others.

As in other Scarry book s there tend to be divisions between men's jobs and women's, but since in the illustrations the animals doing this work are sexless except for their clothes, it would be easy enough for any adult reading the stories to make the steam-shoveler operator a woman, etc . And as in other Scarry books, though many words are labeled, many others are not, so parents and children can add many more word labels of their own . A colorful, lively, funny, informative book.

FAIRY TALES BY HANS ANDERSEN ($5.40 + post). This is an amazing bargain, twenty-four of the best of Andersen's tales, in hard cover, handsomely printed on good paper, with many beautiful illustrations by Arthur Rackham. Many of these are in the soft earth colors for which he is famous. Others are in pen and ink, some black and white sil houettes, some elaborate full-page drawings, some quick sketches . One of these sketches, illustrating "The Princess And The Pea," is one of the funniest drawings I have ever seen . It shows the Princess, sitting on her pile of mattresses, disheveled and furious, after not h aving slept a wink all night. Anyone who has had a bad night will know h ow she feels .

The book is a joy, to look at and to read. I don't know how, these days, they do it for the price.

OTHER NEW BOOKS HERE OXFORD PICTURE DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN ENGLISH by E . C . Parnwell ($3 . 55 + post). For a long time I've thought it would be helpful for children learning to read if they had a collection of word cards, each with a word on one side and on th e ot h er a clearly recognizable picture (if possible, drawn or at least chosen by the c hild ) of what the word represents.

From suc h cards c hildr en could get what they get by hearing someone read aloud to them a sto r y, known by heart, while they look at the words.

Over and over again they hear what a word sounds like and at the same time see what it looks like. The sound and the written word join together in their minds, and soon they begin to intuit h ow the letters combine to make the sound.

On the same principle, parents have put signs on well-known objects around the house - door, chair, table, etc. - so that children can look at each of these written words

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #17

and know what they mean.

The Richard Scarry books (one already on our list, another reviewed in this issue) do this - give children a large number of written words, with pictures to make clear what the words say.

This OXFORD PICTURE DICTIONARY, though written for adults learning English as a second language, does the same thing. It includes over 2000 common English words, wit h pictures illustrating them . The words and pictures are grouped in familiar scenes: Clothes; In The City; In The Supermarket; At The Post Office; The House; The Kitchen; The Bedroom; The Bathroom, etc. There is no plot or story line, just pictures and names of things. To a child who already had a small reading vocabulary, it could be very useful.

A JOURNEY OF POEMS edited by Richard Niebl~ng-T~ + post) . This is one of my favorite collections .

The editor taught English for many years to high sc h ool students, and chose these poems not just because he liked them but because he had found that they were the ones his students liked best. It contains some famous poems by famous poets, but also quite a few poems that you are not likely to run into anywhere else. Four of these are among my favorites of all poems: "The Somerset Dam For Supper, " a very funny and true-to-life story of a talkative family around the supper table, everyone with more to say than time to say it, each impatiently waiting for his chance, but the father in the end outtalking them al l; "Requiem," by Kenneth Fearing, which faces or at least raises the fearful (to most people) possibility that death is nothing more than the end of life; "The Choice," by Hilary Corke, a very moving poem about human courage in the face of certain death; and Arc hibald MacLeish's "Eleven," a portrait of an eleven-year-old boy that might have been written for GWS, so perfectly does it say about children what we are trying to say .

A splendid collection .

FAR TORTUGA by Peter Matthiessen ($2.65 + post). Th e sea has inspired many great novels, and this one, written in 1975, is one of my favorites, on a par with MOBY DICK or the finest works of Joseph Conrad.

It is about seven men, each in some way a victim of bad luck and/or his own weakness, who sail in a small schooner from Grand Cayman Island in the Caribbean to fish for green turtles in the dangerous, reef-filled waters to the south . Though there are a few very beautiful passages of descriptive writing, the story is almost entirely told in the words of these men, as they speak among themselves or with ot h ers they meet on their voyage. Their speech is in Car ibbean dialect and now and then vulgar or profane, but it is strong and direct, quite often even poetic.

These ordinary, "uneducated" men, raised in an oral culture not yet overwhelmed by the canned, fake speech of the mass media, love language and use it well. Through their words we come to know them, and feel almost a part of their dirty, worn little ship, even as we did of Thor Heyerdahl's raft in KON-TIKI. In this, as in all his books, Matthiessen shows how when we humans ignore or despise our connection with nature, and think only how to exploit and conquer her for our own benefit, we end by destroying what we most val -

ue in our culture and ourselves . The Cayman Islanders once raised most of their own food, and built fine houses and ships from trees grown on their own islands. But they destroyed their trees and their soil even as they over fished the turtles on which their economy depended. Now their shipbuilding skills are gone and their seafaring skills dying out, and their young people must be satisfied to work as waiters and bartenders in Cayman ' s tourist hotels. The men on the schooner do not read papers or watch TV and know only their small corner of the world. But they know that in all important ways that corner of the world is getting worse - poorer, meaner, uglier. "~lodern times," they say now and then, and none ever mean it for a compliment.

All in all, a most heroic, beautifully told, and unforgettable story, full of the mystery, loneliness, and power of the sea . (If you find you love it as much as I do, lo ok in a library for Matthiessen's AT PLAY I N THE FIELDS OF THE LORD now out of print.)

BOOK ORDER INFO

Postage charge: for 1 or 2 books, 60C; for 3 or more books, 25c per book (75c for 3 books, 51 for 4, etc.)

Make check (US bank) or money order for book orders payable to HOLT ASSOCIATES, INC. (Payment for subscriptions or back issues of GWS should be made out separately to GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING .) Address: 308 Boylston St, Boston MA 02116.

We have had to raise prices on the following books: GROWING WITH YOUR CHILDREN, $9.50. GROWING UP ABSURD, $2.65. DIARY OF AN EARLY AMERICAN 80Y, $4 .50. MAN'S DOMAIN, A THEMATIC ATLAS, $8.95. The four LAURA INGALLS WILDER books, $2.65 each. ROOTABAGA STORIES PART ONE, 52.00.

We have just added to our booklist: FAMOUS GHOST STORIES, edited by Bennett Cerf, $3.35 .

FRIENDLY SCHOOL DISTRICTS

We are printing a list of school districts that are willingly and happily cooperating with home schoolers, and who are willi ng to be listed in GWS as doing so . We will run this list in each issue.

One reason for such ali st: I want to encourage and reassure school officials who may be hesitant about approving home sChool ing, and let them know that there are other districts en joying good relationships with their home schooling families. Also, families who are willing to move to escape a difficult situation with school officials would have at least some ideas about where to go.

There are of course many more schools that are cooperating with parents than are listed here, but they are hesitating to make it public.

We will only list these school districts under the following conditions: 1) The family has to be not just satisfied but pleased with the cooperation the schools a~ng to their home schooling efforts. 2) The schools themselves have to be pleased with the relationship with the family. 3) The family has to be happy with the idea of asking the schools whether they want to be included in this list. If they feel that listing the schools, or asking the schools if they want to be listed, may endanger their good present relationship, then t hey shouldn't ask. 4) The schools themselves have to be happy about being included i n the 1i st. I f they are uneasy about it, or fear that it may get them in trouble with someone, we'd rather not subject them to that risk.

So - if your district is cooperating

20

with your home schooling, and you would like them to be on this list, ask them, and let us know if they say to go ahead.

By the way, we would also like to hear from schools that would like to help home schooling families, but have not been able to do so because no families have yet asked them.

CA - San Juan Ridge Union School District,-r8847 Tyler Foote Rd, Nevada City 95959; Marilyn DeVore, Administrator.

MA - Barnstable Public Schools, 230 South~, Hyannis MA 02601; Jane Shecke11s, Curriculum Director.

Rockland Public Schools, Rockland 02370; Supt. John W. Rogers.

Southern Berkshire Regional School District, Sheffield 01257; Director of Guidance, Pau 1 Shafi roff.

VT - Woodbury School, Woodbury; Marilyn HiTT, Principal.

DIRECTORY

Here are the additions and changes that have come in since our last issue . The most recent complete Directory was in #15.

Our Directory is not a list of all subscribers, but only of those who have asked to be listed, so that other GWS readers, or other interested people, may get in touch with them. If you would like your name to appear here, please send us the information.

Note that we are listing names and/or ages of children in many families. Let us know if you want us to add yours to the list.

AL - Regina CALLAHAN, 798 Westcott Dr, WetumpKa 36092 AR - James & Carol STIRLING (Jim 16, John 1~ Charity 6) Rt 1 Box 5, Gravette 72736 (new add) South CA (Zips to 94000) - Tom & Kathy FAULKNER (Chad 9, Eric 6, Jeff 4) 9124 Campina Dr, Apt C, La Mesa 92041 --- Frank & Regina MALLAT (Ahna 5, Josefina 1) 9504 Mecca Rd, Morongo Valley 92256 (new add) --Debbie & Peter MITTEN (Jonathan 4, Jed 2) 14102 Priscilla St, La Mirada 90638 --- Tim & Portia PEARSON (Ky1a 8, Keri 7, Rachel 5) 73070 Santa Rosa, Palm Desert 92260 --- Charlotte ROBERTS (Tequina 4) PO Box 3671, San Bernardino 92413 North CA (Zips 94000 & up) - Anton io, Deborah &Crystal BARRAGAN, 474 WMacArthur Blvd, Oakland 94609 --- Tim & Karen BATES (Joseph 2) 3322 Chiles Valley Rd, St Helena 94574 --- George LEVENSON & Vicki LUNDGREN (Jacob 7, Rhys 5) 123 Woods St, Santa Cruz 95062 CO - Kathleen SABlAN, 2007 Greeley Mall, Greeley 80631 --- Bill & Denise WI LCOX (Erika 7, Kristin 5) Box 517, Frederick 80530 FL - Cathy & David COOK (Andrew 3, ElainaiO mol 718 Poinciana St, Clewiston 33440 --- Chuck & Linda MOORE (Jennifer 11, Chris 10, Wendy 7, Emily 5) 631 Pettry Ct, Pensacola 32508 IL - Stephen & Cheri CLARK (Jasmine 9 mol Rt-Z Box 77A, Lebanon 62254 IN - Richard & Barbara MAZANEC, THE GREENHOUSE ACADEMY, INC. (Pati 14, Susi 10, Angi 8) 707 E Main, N Judson 46366 IA - Shannon HAGGERSON (Jessica 7, Ryan 2:-Anne 1) RR 1, Anamosa 52205 --- Pat HELLAND, 219 W. Division, Clarinda 51632 (new add) MA - Mary Ann & Paul O'CONNOR (Daniel1e 1"5";" Paul Jr 13, Melissa 9, Lisa 8, Lee 6, Hyun 5, Katie 5, Brian 4, Kevin 3, Rebecca & Jennifer 4 mol PO Box 204, Forestdale 02644 MI - Field & Sandy CARDEN (Jesse 6, Sara 3~Rt 2 Box 71, Suttons Bay 49682 --Gary & Beverly CHEADLE (Cassady 7, Renn 3) Rt 1 Box 223-0, Suttons Bay 49682 --- Pat & Dick COOKMAN (Rob 9, Jane 7) Rt 2 Box 439, Suttons Bay 49682 --- Stephen & Laurie DAVIS (Kyle 9, Grant 7, Nathan 6, Will 6 mol 7857 WLakeview Rd, Traverse City 49684 --- Alan & Tally MIDDLETON (Amy 17, Alicia 15, Melissa 11, Brigette 8) Box 47, Northport 49670

--- Sandra MOSIER, 7391 S 36th St, Scotts 49088 --- Bernadine PUWAL (Debbie 7) 8466 Colony Dr, Algonac 48001 MO - John & Delores KOENE (Hildegarde 14, Marna 11, Jennifer 10, Myles 7l Rt 3 Box 80A, Poplar Bluff 63901 NY - David BAKER, RD 1 Box lOB, Marathon Apts, Clover Av, E Greenbush 12061 --Bobbie &Eric COHEN (Lauren 5, Alec 2) Rt 2 Grand St, Sag Harbor 11963 --- Susan GOSS, 2 Winkle Point Dr, Northpoint 11768 OR - Fred & Mary CAREY, 5738 SE Westfork S~ Portland 97206 PA - Karl & Renate KRUMMENOEHL (Joshua 7, Arwen Evenstar 2) Cricklewood, RD 1, Mertztown 19539 --- Jonathan &Mary Ann LEUPOLD (Thane 8, Bron 3) Sun Power Farm, RD 3 Box 168B, Lehighton 18235 --- John & Emily McDERMOTT (Katie 11) 2428 Nottingham Rd, Bethlehem 18017 --- Gail REYNOLDS (Levi 5, Bhavani 3) 506 E Allegany Av, Emporium 15834 --- Dean SCHNEIDER, 3918 Lincoln Pkwy W, Allentown 18104 (new add) RI - Marie FRIEDEL, NATIONAL FOUNDATION F~ GIFTED & CREATIVE CHILDREN, 395 Diamond Hill Rd, Warwick 02886 TX - Hardy & Diana HENDERSON-LEWIS (Levi ~ Lemuel 5, Serenity 3) 205 Northgate Dr, San Antonio 78218 --- Richard STARK, PO Box 66, N Zulch 77872 --- Larry & Sally WILSON, Rt 2 Box 16, Lindale 75771 UT - Michael & Patricia GURLEY (Brendan 10:-Cindy 6) Blacks Tr. Ct, Moab 84532 VT - Denise BEATTIE, Middletown Spgs 05757 ~- Jim & Natalie CASCO (4,2,1 mol Middletown Spgs 05757 --- Adele (Spivack) GARLICK, 206 King St, Burlington 05401 --Martha HEITKAMP (21,20,9,9) Middletown Spgs 05757 --- David & Gina RITSCHER (5,4,1) Middletown Spgs 05757 --- Ellen SECORD (2,2) Middletown Spgs 05757 WA - Ken & Carol LEITHEAD (S am 10) Rt 2 Box ~8 #31, Colville 99114 --- Sarah LIGHT (Ian 6 mol 5115 S Brandon, Seattle 98118 --- Susan WOLFE, N 2614 Madelia, Spokane 99207 (new add)

they appe ar.

The price of a set of back issues (now Issues #1-11) is $12. Add $5.50 for each additional set mailed at the same time to the same address. We strongly urge that you get all the back issues of GWS. Most of what we print will be as useful in later years as when we first print it. Thus there are important articles on Learning the Law in Issues #2, 3; Court Rulings in #7, 8, 9, 11; Math in #1, 4, 6, 7, 9; Reading in #2-7, 10; Learning Difficulties in #3, 5, 11; Work in #6, 8, 10; and so on.

Single copies of Issue #1 are 50¢ each; later issues, $2.00 each.

For all subs or orders of GWS (not books) please send check or money orders in US funds made out to GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING. Canadian and other foreign payments must be either money orders or checks drawn on US banks. We can't afford to accept personal checks on Canadian accounts, even if they have "US funds" written on them.

Grout subscription rates can be figured from he followlng table. 1X means you get one copy of each issue, 2X means you get two copies of each issue, 3X means three copies, and so on.

1X 2X 3X etc

6 issues $10 $12 $14 add $2 ea person

12 issues $18 $22 $26 add $4 ea person

18 issues $24 $30 $36 add $6 ea person

Please remember that when two or more people take out a group sub, all copies of each issue will be sent to one of them.

You can "bump" your sliliScription, i.e., convert a single to a 2X, a 2X to a 3X, etc, if the change is $6 or more.

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING 30B Boylston Street Boston MA 02116

CANADA -----BC - Eric & Joan LAVINGER (Jamey 9) Box 21~, Parksville VOR 2S0 --- Lynne & Nava THUNDERSTORM (Leaf 9, Quenima Raven 5 mol Anahim Lake VOL lCO SUBSCRIPTIONS

Our current policy starts all subscriptions with the latest six issues, unless you tell us otherwise. For example, if you send $10 for an individual subscription, you will get Issues #12-17; if you send $18, you'll receive #12-17 now and the next six issues as they appear; or if you send $24, you'll get #12-17 now and the next twelve issues as

Editor - John Holt Managing Editor - Peg Durkee Associate Editor - Donna Richoux FLASH - Cathy Earle, 1602 Naco Pl, Hacienda Hts CA 91745 (213-961-4630) would like to start a learning exchange. Send info and SASE. She has a computer and would also like to hear from others in the area who could help with the work.

Copyright @ 1977 Holt Associates, Inc.